Hmm, what kind of week was this?? It was a little short as I had Friday off. The Powers That Be at work decided since Christmas and New Year’s Eve both fall on Mondays this year, that they would just make them honorary vacation days…and since I had already put in to take them as vacation days, I now had two additional days to use before the end of the year. So, 4-day weekend before the last week before Christmas break. That’s a lovely thing!

After last week I was happy to lay a little low this week and come home in the evenings after work and just work, watch a little tv and go to bed. I didn’t sleep well all this week. I did try and find a couple Christmassy houses to photograph every day on my way home…just to get a little Christmas mojo.

Still feeling pretty autumnal here…even with Christmas lights. Plus: note Laurie Partridge eye!

I had a 3-look photo shoot Friday morning. I was SO hot, in spite of the mid-February high-3o-degree weather, that by the time we got to the 3rd look, I was SOAKED. It literally looked like someone had hosed my head down. It wasn’t pretty. You’ll get to see that blog post on Wednesday. Try and contain your excitement.

This is after the shoot. I went and got a breakfast sandwich and my hair was finally dryish by the time I got home but. Oofah. Then five minutes, a spritz with the water bottle, and a quick blowdry later, voila! How I looked when I left the house before the shoot. To say I run warm is an understatement.

I helped a friend get some old camera equipment on ebay and afterwards we had dinner. I’m not much of a beer drinker but with a name like this I had to give it a try.

Not a fan.

Then we drove around in the rain to look at Christmas decorations.

I love the super traditional houses and the ones that go all out.

Saturday I just stayed home working while my friends went to play in the city…but no FOMO here, cuz Janey and I got to see Santa!

From a distance, but still. I had to stay camped out on the sofa for quite some time while we listened to the fire sirens go up and down all the streets. I didn’t hate that.

Neither did Janey, who would pop up from her nap on the back of the sofa every time we’d hear him getting closer.

I’ve been wanting cognac/chestnut knee high boots for a couple years but…could never find what I liked at a price I was willing to spend…that looked like they would actually fit me. I finally came across these Sam Edelman boots from Torrid that checked the first two boxes, and they described them as extra extra wide calf, so I went for it.

First, the color was not quite as shown on the website. They’re much more brown in person, which will work, but…is not chestnut or cognac as they had indicated. Then…the zipper stopped before the top of the boot! What a ridiculous plan! So I really struggled just to get INTO the one boot. The whole point of a knee high boot is so that I won’t have to struggle into TIGHTS all winter, so where’s the win here?? Anyway, by the time I get my foot and leg in and the boot pulled up…it was quickly cutting off the circulation right below my knee and OUCH and it was not even CLOSE to zipping. I swear I have THE largest calves on the planet. So. They’re going back. As most everything I buy does!

Sunday I tried to do a quick shoot but it was pouring so that got nixed. Then I thought I would get “Christmas” set up inside and do tripod selfies in front of that, but one thing led to another and it was already dark by the time I started and then I ran into issues with the new fake tree. Fake Tree is something new for me. Not so happy about it. Blah blah blah. But spent some time trying to figure out the layout of “Christmas Corner” (which you might recognize as the future home of the “Zen Spot,” but I never got around to that, either), and I think it’ll be okay once I finish. I have to take it back outside tomorrow on the concrete and try to hammer the two parts together because I couldn’t get it completely together just by pressing and there’s an empty spot in the middle where you can see the metal pole that’s inside the “trunk.”

BUT I got a LOT of work done this weekend – blog work. Made good progress on my content calendar and got some things written so I don’t have to come home every night this week and do more work. I can see friends or drive around and look at Christmas lights or come home and read a book or watch a movie. Won’t that be lovely?!

What are y’all doing for the holidays?