Merry Christmas to all!

I hope everyone's holiday was well! The end of this month has been extremely busy!

Thursday the 16th, I met up with some girlfriends at a bar to play team trivia. Although very fun, I don't think I was a very critical part of the team. You think I'd have more of a handle on 'random stupid facts', but apparently I cave under pressure! We ended up getting 8th place (ouch!)

Saturday was the work Christmas shindig at a hoity toity country club (I had to wear nylons - yuck!) I flew solo to the event this time (a small bummer) but luckily found people I knew right away to bum around with. It was a little fancy for my taste, but I'm not going to argue with free food and open bar!!! After the event, some of us made our way to another bar (yours truly roped into DD duty) for a little more chit chat and fun! Although remaining remarkable sober in lieu of free alcohol, I still had a great time.

Sunday I decided I needed some much deserved ME time and I treated myself to the showing of 'A Christmas Carol' in downtown Milwaukee at the Pabst Theatre (leave it to Milwaukee to name places after booze founders). I think the box office clerk was a little taken a back as a young girl was only buying one ticket and flying solo, but I didn't mind. The play was excellent and I am very glad I went! Hopefully additional interesting shows will come (rumor is Beauty and the Beast is coming in the summer!) and I can add them to my list of things to do. I've had a revelation that I'm not going to sit around all the time and not do stuff just because I am alone - I'll miss out on too many awesome things that way! Although doing things with friends is very enjoyable, I like to know that I'm confident enough in myself to not always have to depend on others for fun.

Christmas weekend I was able to go home! Christmas eve was spent with my dad. 'Tis the season for silly animal headwear apparently! I got a moose hat from a friend too! haha!

The rest of the weekend was Christmas with mom and brother. I am very thrilled to now be the proud owner of a new GPS (Hopefully I won't get lost anymore as my old one was getting a little finicky!) and a crockpot (maybe if I don't have to cook right when I get home I'll eat better? that's the plan anyway). I also co-won my first ever game of scrabble! Epic, I know. Mom and I went ice skating down in Rosa Parks Circle (her first time ever). It was a lot of fun but we could go for long as the rental skates were brutally painful!

Monday was my drive home, but not before a morning trip to Bittersweet for the first snowboard of the season! I called myself a snowbunny, but Nick more accurately labeled me a snow platypus! So I'm not the greatest...but I had fun and didn't break anything!

I'm a little bummed to be back home and facing work again, but hey, that's life! I hope your holidays were all you hoped for! Happy New Year! I'll leave you with a photo of my quirky little tree!

Who the hell taught the cat to read?

As I sit here typing this I am becoming increasingly aware of the longer and longer time distances between posts. It's not that I get tired of writing, but rather absolutely nothing exciting seems to be going on!

The majority of my time has been spent rounding up the last of the doctors appointments before the new year and insurance turn over! I'm pretty sure I've been to the eye dr. a half dozen times and the contacts I am currently in still suck :( And with the holidays fast approaching, it looks like I'll have to wait until January to get back in to try a stronger RX. Anyone care to pay for my lasik eye surgery? Anyone? Anyone at all?

Thanksgiving was lovely, especially since I got to go home this year for it unlike my last! And I think this was the first Turkey Day where I didn't feel completely gorged on food (way to pace yourself, Hannah!) As per ususal, I made my rounds visiting the fam. and going to see Geo. Poor Nick had his wisdom teeth removed the day before Thanksgiving, so kudos to him for still being willing to let me come bug him despite the chipmunk cheek fiasco. I stopped by a friend's place in Chicago on the drive which was a great time to as we had official Chicago deep dish pizza and spent hours in some bar playing board games! Too bad I didn't get any photos of that part of the adventure.

Mom and her classic smile :)

As always- huge thanks to Erich and Laura for always letting me crash at their place!

Poor Nick :( At least Geo doesn't seem to mind a little down time too. (don't hate me for posting this picture either! haha)

Back in Milwaukee the tree is up and decorated (with a few more ornaments than last year as I finally picked up the final box I had stored in my brother's basement). The Christmas shopping is also complete with everything wrapped and ready to go! Being the single cat-lady-in-training that I am, Echo had 3 gifts wrapped under the tree as well. Well...2 now. The damn thing found one of his gifts and tore it open leaving the wrapping paper carnage for me to find after work. You may be thinking "Well Hannah, that's what you get for putting a treat under the tree" and yes, you'd be correct, but he had left it alone for 2 weeks before his attack and I caught him just this morning nawing on another one of his presents - the one that happened to be his new collar. How the cat knows which ones are his - damned if I know. That's what I get for labeling his name on them... Good to know that he's just like me and can't help but want to sneak a little peek.

This previous weekend end was a little more full that usual: Jim and I went downtown to visit this used book store which was wild! 3 stories of wall to wall, floor to ceiling used books in this rundown, creaky, peeling floor building. Risking making the renters of a certain Brooklyn loft angry at me again for my impression of their place - one of the things that this bookstore reminded me of was the pickle factory that I stayed in with Robin back in my NYC trip. I'm still not sure if there was any rhyme or reason to the organization, but they had a lot of cool things to see and it definitely wasn't your standard Barnes and Noble! Maybe not the best place if you're looking for something specific, but I bet there are a lot of hidden treasures - I'd love to go back!See this - then multiply it by 10!!! An OCD nightmare!

And what would the holidays be without roping someone in to build a gingerbread house with me? I seem to be on a quest to single-handedly make Jim relive his childhood between the pumpkin carving and now the gingerbread frosting (while listening to such holiday classics as 'I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas' and the Muppets version of '12 Days of Christmas') We had a blast even if our house wasn't parade of homes quality!

I got me a career in roofing!

Our self-timer finished product shot!

Strategically placing the house outside the reach of Echo's sticky paws.

As for upcoming events...My work Christmas party is this coming Saturday and the staff here seems to be buzzing about the open bar (and setting up their DD's!) Free food and drinks? I'm in! I'll be braving the trip back to GR for Christmas on the 24th and staying until the 27th. Hopefully I'll get a day of snowboarding in there? Fingers crossed! I'm not set on my New Year plans yet, but I hear Milwaukee has a mini ball drop like GR does. On January first there is a polar bear plunge into Lake Michigan that I would love to do, but for some reason I'm having trouble finding an accomplice.... I wonder why? I've also found a rock climbing class I think I'm interested that starts in January. The one I'm looking at is all girls so if I chose to do it hopefully I could meet some new friends! I haven't been able to go to many meet-ups lately since they conflict with my schedule, and as much as I like the time with all my guy friends (speaking of my friend adam from Cali just moved here! But I haven't been able to see him but 1 or 2 times, again that darn schedule thing!) some girl time is always a must (Meg - wanna move to Milwaukee?!)

I think that about sums it up for now! So for everyone out there in cyberspace who might actually read this (Yes you, my 5 fans!) I'll keep you updated on what happens with the New Year (I joined a gym back in November so already a head start on that resolution ;p )