I love...Christmas.

You've probably been thinking: "What did Jenny do for Christmas this year?!"
Well, relax, I'll tell you.

The long holiday weekend started early, with me being sick. Thursday I woke up not felling well. I'll spare you all the details, but I spent some quality time with my bathroom that morning. I then proceeded to sleep...all day. Not exactly sure what was wrong, but I didn't get my appetite back until Saturday evening, so I have decided to call it a "Christmas Diet"!

After a long Thursday nap I was feeling well enough on Friday to venture out and finish my Christmas shopping. I visited Room Service in Ohio City, the new shops on East 4th Street and Big Fun in Lakewood. Then I stopped by the grocery store to pick up ingredients for a dip I wanted to take to a Christmas party that evening. The recipe included cream cheese and pepper jelly relish all mixed together in one bowl of yumminess. However, I blanked on the ratio of relish to cream cheese, so once I mixed it together it came out bright pink. And I mean pink as in Pepto-Bismol pink. Or as in kinda scary looking to eat with a cracker pink. I was running late, so decided to still take the dip and hope for the best. The party was a great time. It was a gathering of the Hunt Club Pool Rats - a group I managed to sneak my way into during college when I met my good friend Rachel (aka: Moose). She brought me around enough that the Hunt Club friends she grew up with couldn't get rid of me. I should also note that one of the Pool Rats, Ryan, managed to earn 1,000 From Chalk With Love bonus points by mentioning my blog a gazillion times throughout the night.

I then spent Saturday-Monday in Columbus where my sister Susan and her family live. The rest of my family met up there for the weekend, too. We laughed. We ate. We rationed Great Lakes Christmas Ales. My dad made some repairs to my slowly dying car. My 2-year old niece taught me that the word "mine" can be used to answer just about any question. And I was given the new nickname of "butter pockets" (I can't remember exactly why, but it was funny).

For Christmas I got several great items, including a crockpot and pink leopard print mixing bowls that I'm sure I'll eventually use while wearing my apron. I got Tina Fey's book "Bossypants", which I've heard a lot of good things about and can't wait to dig into. I also got Shel Silverstein's newly released book "Every Thing On It", and as I've previously stated - I love Shel Silverstein - so this was especially exciting.

All in all, it was a great weekend (minus the opening Thursday sick-nap scene). I hope you all had a great holiday weekend, too!

Now that the Christmas weekend is over it's time to focus on planning a 2012 NYE celebration for this weekend! I know I'll be with some good friends downtown, but need to pick the place(s), the props (like last year's drink hangers), and the outfit.

Are you ready, 2012?