Laugh or cry

Friday we went to my work's holiday party. It was at a local Latino restaurant and it was very fun. So nice to work with such kind and fun people. We skipped out early so the young'uns could get their party on. Saturday was heaven as I slept in-so delicious! I then went to the Galleria and got to play Santa for myself. Meet my new little friend:

Pretty isn't she?!! I have been drooling for it for a l-o-n-g while and my contract ends with Verizon this coming week. Even better I overheard my hubband telling my father-in-law that it was a great deal-that is like a blessing from the pope-a finance dude saying "good deal". The rest of the day was a blur-I was too blissed out with my new toy.

Sunday was the kind of day that makes you laugh till you cry or just cry. Maybe you can identify or maybe you just want to laugh at me. Holiday cooking. I thought I would be oh so smart and make inexpensive and personal gifts for my crew of people in my office. I had bought cute chinese takeout boxes at Hobby Lobby and thought I was just doing so great-I got them before Thanksgiving-so ahead of the game. I went to a local nut company and got two small bags of pistachios and one bag of cranberries. I wanted to make a holiday white candy bark and I remembered doing this one year and knew I had a recipe. Today, I thought I would make the bark. I made a trip to the local Whole Foods and splurged on real white chocolate. I bought double the amount in the recipe because I knew I had a lot of nuts and berries. I come home, carefully toast the pistachios, lay out a counter full of parchment paper, chop the nuts and sprinkle on the cranberries. I chop the chocolate, melt and temper it. I try to pour it out over the "goodies" and discover that I do not have enough chocolate. I go to Wal Mart since I needed to return some stuff. I walk all over-no white chocolate and no almond bark. I take a few deep breathes and head over to HEB, get 2 packages of almond bark from the TOP shelf and head out. Go home, melt it, pour it and.......... not enough AND different color of white. Breathing, breathing, go to tell hubband that I must go BACK to store. Fight tears. Speed to HEB. Buy 3 whites and one chocolate to cover mismatch of chocolate. Melt, pour, melt, pour, melt, pour and I have a counter full of bark. Bag it and try not to mentally calculate that I could have bought them all movie tickets for cheaper.

Made chocolate chip cookies with the boy-nice memories. The hubband made gumbo tonight. It was DIVINE. Nothing like gumbo on a cold night.