Festive Friday

Hello and Happy Friday!  I apologize for the major gap in posting this week...it has been a roller coaster (mostly in a good way).  I turned in my third application on Monday night and exhaled a huge sigh of relief.  The next potential application isn't due until January 15th and if I get some good news at the end of this month I may not even need to submit that one...fingers crossed!  The applications were definitely painful but I will admit that producing them was a valuable exercise to go through.  Writing them made me think seriously about what my goals are and how I arrived at them and I am now even more excited about the prospect of graduate school.  Nonprofit management is the plan at this point and it is still kind of crazy to me that it can become a reality through the applications now in process.

Celebratory glass of wine framed by twinkle lights on our balcony

All that positive self-discovery aside, I am more than happy to return to a normal life rhythm and to finally be able to enjoy the holiday season.  Despite a crazy work schedule with a major proposal sent out for delivery this morning, I managed to sneak in two happy hours, a long lunch with Katie and some Christmas decorating.  I'll share a bit more of that next week but for now I'm happy to have this picture of our twinkly little rosemary tree.  I really wanted to do a big tree this year, but with our trip to California and travel during the holidays I had to admit it wasn't practical.  That said, this little one is impossibly fragrant and will tide me over until I reach my parents' enormous tree at home.

Our baby tree

This weekend is full of fun, festive plans and is one I have been looking forward to for over a month.  Tonight is Greg's company Christmas party, so we are getting all spiffed up and heading out on the town.  I'm really looking forward to meeting his new coworkers and I also always enjoy the sight of my dashing man in a suit!  Tomorrow we are headed out to Greg's parents' house for their annual Army-Navy party to watch the big game.  His dad is a West Point grad and his parents have a lot of great friends from both the Army and the Navy, so it is always a really wonderful time.

I hope your weekends are similarly full of fun, seasonal happenings. Back with more on Monday!