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