Sorry I've been a little MIA lately...

The Z-Do-Da is back up and runnin' for the New Year!

Hope you had a WONDERFUL holiday :) 

      

My Christmas Break Motto

    

Ever Fortunate

Not gonna lie, 
I had a serious moral hangover for about a week after the 
"1st Annual Hall-iday Festivus" party that I hosted for all of my Sandbox co-workers.
  
Not so surprising with our crew, 
things got a "touch" loud and not just one, but 
both my above-and-below neighbors called-in noise complaints. 
{insert guilty face here}

So admittedly, 
my heart felt very full today after receiving this note 
my landlord left under my door: 

Goes without saying, I'll be working on my "be good to thy neighbor" skills in the New Year :S
     

Do you see what I see?

Maybe you're not looking hard enough...

For reals!

I gotta Cookie Monster Lava Lamp 

in our "adult" family White Elephant Exchange. 

  

LOVE 

Thank you, Dana :)

     

HAPPY HALL-IDAYS

A very Merry Christmas, indeed :)

  

Blessed

Without question, this December has been the busiest month of my life (to date) on a personal and professional level. 

  

I am blessed with work and more so, 

with an incredible amount of 

family and friends close by. 

However, I'm afraid that the combination of the two has brought the notion of "work hard, play hard" to a whole new height. 

So it was really nice to take a breather, 
head to my parents house,
and go to church to take a moment 
to give thanks for all the above. 

I just feel really badly for the woman who had to offer me a Kleenex when I totally burst into tears during "Joy to the World" at the end of the service...

Between the lack of sleep and thinking about how this is our first Christmas without Grandma Stella, I just kinda lost my shit :( 
   

But it sure felt good to cry it out. With all of our lives being as busy as they are, it's important to take time to remember the real reason for the season :)
   

Lincoln Park Zoo Lights

Not-So-Secret Confession:

My love for Zoo Lights goes beyond words

Confession...

And it's even better when you go with the fam

and put red wine in your coffee cups ;)

  

  

Candy Land

Was so fun to take a break from work, 

to do a lil' manual labor ;)

Sandbox meets Gingerbread Houses...

I was SOOO happy that mine was a winner :)

 

  YAHOOOOOOO!

  

"Extreme Makeover: HO-HO-HOME! Edition"

  

Elf consumerism...

Elf at work...

And what came after :)

Will be such a bummer to take this all down :(

  

Home Sweet Home

Not gonna lie, 

after traveling all last week for work,

I've never been happier walking through O'Hare 

as I was this afternoon :) 

Sooo nice to be back in my own place

and to decorate for the Hall-idays.

Many pix to follow tomorrow...

ELF AT WORK!

   

LOVE

     

          

Why?

Last night I had the honor to be a guest speaker 

at a Medill graduate journalism class 

to talk about recent "Insights, Discoveries & Developments" 

within the social media market research 

and tech-start-up environments. 

{insert deep breath here}

All was going really well, 

the class seemed super into the presentation, 

peeps were asking great questions, 

and out of absolutely no where, 

I burped!

Like, the loud kind. 

Completely totally unexpected.

Surprised the shit out of me, kind. 

And I couldn't stop laughing.

The class must have been like,
"Who is this crass woman?!?!"

But thankfully they all laughed too,

so I was able to make a joke of it and move on. 

But I still can't believe it happened. 

I never burp!! 

So whhhyyyy did one sneak up on me like that 

in front of all those crazy smart people?!?

Note to self: 

Do not chug a Diet Coke to help caffeinate prior to presenting. You are an idiot for thinking this would "enhance" performance.  Next time, oh wait, there likely will not be a "next time"... Hahahaha
Oi!

  

Weekend Highlights

  

Day drinking while watching

Michigan womp on Nebraska

 Watching Livie show-off her new "hiding" spot :)

Catching up with Jess and hearing all the latest 

ha!lariousness that little Miss Harper brings to life :)

The smile on 'Drea's face from this perfect Kodak Moment 

 that April sent us from Disney World :)

Receiving these two pieces of digital awesomeness 

as "Scorin' Soren"

and baby Christian 

"prepared" for Da Bears game. 

  

Cracking up at how positively edible Stella is:

  

Seeing Camille's first "teeths" come in!

  
And last but not least, 

attending Connor's 1st birthday party and 

living vicariously through his very first 

"cupcake experience" 

Priceless!

Although I'm admittedly no where near ready 

for the responsibility of a child 

(or a dog for that matter), 

I absolutely ADORE my little friends 

and the wonderful people in my life 

who created them :)

    

To my besties with babes, 

please keep the picture texts coming. 

I love getting them!

    

Weekend Warrior

Walter will be staying with me for the wknd 

while his parents are outta town. 

Excited to test out this whole "dog owner" idea...

Should a success ensue, 

then this might too :)

  

Fingers crossed

This Month's Reads

Work Book Club

Mother/Daughter Book Club

  

No Club -- Just Awesome

   

Easily Influenced

Heading home from work tonight 

I'd no clue what I wanted for dinner 

(all I knew is that I really had to pee). 

  

So after running up to my apartment,

 grabbing the mail, 
and inadvertently seeing this slice of heaven
on a penny-mailer for Giordano's pizza...

  

They got me.

There was no resisting the call.

Exactly 40 minutes later a scrumptious deep dish 'za arrived 

aaaaand, I remain a firm believer in all-things Advertising.

Note to self: 

Do NOT open the Anthropologie catalog 

Repeat: 

PUT.IT.DOWN.NOW

     

Vera

With the snow steadily sneaking-up upon us, 
I'm on a mission to keep my calendar filled with
yummy spots to try each and every Winter week
(so not to completely succumb to the temptation to hibernate ;)
  

First stop: 
1023 W. Lake Street 

    

As in vera awesome atmosphere

and even more so,
 vera amazing food :)

It's off the beaten path a bit
but the parking is plentiful and
the menu will surely not disappoint!

 

Next week's stop:

Grange Hall Burger Bar

Stay tuned