Holiday and Fun in the Sun...

Well, today is my last day of work for this year. We even get a half-day!! Awesome!

So, from today until the 26th, I'll be focused on Christmas stuff. I still have a bit-o-shopping to do and then I'm off to Granger, IN to spend a festive Christmas with James, Terralyn and his family. I'll drive back on the 26th and that's when I will focus on....

MEXICO! Yeah, baby! Bring on the sunshine, warm climate and beaches. And we musn't forget the margaritas. I'll be meeting up with my sister and her friends in the Cancun airport and then we will all hitch a ride on a bus to Tulum. I'll be there from the 28th until January 5th. Then I have an entire weekend to recover before having to go back to work. That will be a grand total of two weeks and 2 days off from work! YES. Not going to work is awesome.

Christmas Differences....

In addition to preparing for my trip to Mexico for New Years, I'm gearing myself up for Christmas. I'll be spending the holidays with James, Terralyn and their family, so it will be a very different Christmas for me, indeed. Of course, there are always different Christmas tradtions between families, but my family is particularly different from the "average American Christian family."

First of all, my siblings and I aren't Christian. Well, now....that does make things a bit different, doesn't it. We didn't celebrate Christmas until I was about 13 years old after moving to the United States. Even then, we never celebrated it like other families. It's much more casual and laid back. It's more about food and family with receiving gifts as more of a bonus. My family "tradition:"

I wake up Christmas day to my mom making sure she has everything cooked and organized. We then drive to my grandma's house (about an hour or less away) where my uncle and perhaps his friend, Bill, will also be. We help with any cooking/organizing that needs to be done there and then sit down to a nice meal at around 3:00 (give or take). Of course, there are desserts-o-plenty. Then, after we eat, we clean up a bit and start opening gifts. Usually the gifts are more simple and not in huge abundance. In fact, I usually just bake goodies for people as my gifts (brownies, fudge, cookies, whatever). Then we sit and chat for the rest of the evening, perhaps taking a nice winter stroll after all of our eating.

Butler University Christmas Party

We had the University Christmas party last Friday. It was my first time to go and it was a pretty decent time (as far as company xmas parties go). It was held at the Children's Museum in downtown Indy. They have a "double-slide" you can race down with someone else. I raced Tyler and totally kicked his ass, as you can see in the picture.

Work Craziness

Pardon the semi-hiatus I've taken from blogging. And what a blog entry to leave it on, too. :)

Work has been a bit crazy. A key person on my team resigned last week unexpectantly. In order to ensure that all tasks are taken care of, the work has been split up between all of us with me being the leader of the team until a replacement is found. It was pretty unnerving at the beginning of the week, but I think I'm getting the hang of things already. I'm actually feeling a lot better at the moment because a big meeting that I've been preparing for weeks for just got done and it went well. I feel like I can finally breathe again. Whew!!!

This weekend should be fun, though. Tomorrow is the annual Xmas party at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. I'm getting all my friends from work to go. We're, of course, going to go to a bar beforehand so we can slide down the slides at the children's museum while under the influence. Not too much under the inlfuence. Just slightly. Then Sunday Terralyn and I are driving to Chicago to pick up james from the airport. Yay!