happy christmas eve!

phew. i managed to get through my last day at work till the new year - i'd asked for this week off too, but was denied. "it was already short notice that you were taking the week of the 28th off. we need you this week." bah! i had so much to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in. of course.

i spent the majority of the afternoon running around like one of santa's elves with his head cut off. i needed to pick up something for the teen that was only in old town pasadena, and while i was dreading it, i bit the bullet and headed out right after work. i was happy to find a parking spot relatively quickly, and then got in and out of the store i needed in no time.

and because i'm a true glutton for punishment, i hit up the mall for a few things. again, i was happy to avoid fighting to park the car, and navigated my way through the hordes of folks easily. shopping solo makes it pretty nice for scooting through small openings and speed-walking through the aisles.

my last stop was target to find stocking stuffers, and by the time i was done, i was spent. i hadn't had a thing to eat all day aside from a delicious winter dream tea latte from coffee bean, and i was feeling a little weak. and what could be better after a long afternoon of christmas shopping than a delicious mcrib from mcdonald's? heh.

oh, here's a random bean picture, because i love that hat. and the smirk.

i picked up the teen and headed to the grandparents' house, where they were hanging out with the ILs and the bean. i was amused to see this on the table:

the local edible arrangements shop had tried to deliver this the other day, while we were at our restaurant depot extravaganza, and apparently had major difficulty in finding the house. these days, with GPS and navigation on cell phones - hell, a simple thomas guide! - i found it ridiculous that a delivery guy couldn't find an address that's been in existence for about 40 years. and the shop was literally just up the street and around the corner! good gracious.

oh, another random bit - check out the gift that in-n-out gave to each and every associate (they don't call them "employees," i don't know why but that's just the way they roll):

after dinner, FIL and the hub took off with the teen to do some last-minute shopping, leaving me, the bean, and MIL to finish off the last of the grocery-ing for our christmas dinner. going that late was actually a blessing, because there were no crowds to fight through and we got it all done pretty quickly. the bean had a blast riding through the aisles in this cart:

and this morning, i've already whipped out a batch of homemade marshmallows:

and i'm about to get started on another cute little project. i hope they're as easy to make as they look.

stay tuned for the recap.