12 days of ...

Vacation! Yes, it's true. For the last 11 days I have been on a vacation. Parts of it included a vacation to Iowa and the later portion has been a stay-cation, here at home - completing projects, resting, watching movies and catching up with people. Here have been some of my highlights :
* lunch with Sarah and Erin before rushing out of the Twin Cities to beat the snow storm
* lunch with Tawny and Shari (again before heading back to the farm to beat the snow storm :))
It had been almost 2 years since I had seen Shari so it was great for the three of us to have some time together like the good 'ole days
* snowed in on the farm for 2.5 days - quality time with my family. I beat Mark quite a few times in Sequence but he definately dominated in Yahtzee.
* spent an entire day with Tawny. We did quite a bit of shopping and Tawny out-spent me at almost every store! oh yeah - I beat her at Phase 10 for the 2nd time in a row too!
* had some quality time with my mom. Always includes shopping and eating!
* had lunch with Laura, Linda and my mom at the church. We spent almost 3 hours talking and catching up. I heard lots of great stories.
* Dinner with Steve and Becky - at Sports Page, Yum!

That's a synopsis of my time at home in Iowa. As you can tell, I didn't go hungry and starting Monday I will be hitting the gym and detoxing my body from all the sugar I've had in the last 2 weeks. Yikes.

Since I've been back to Minnesota I've...
* spent some time with Jackie and Monica. Thanks to Jackie, who helped me put my furniture back together in my apartment after getting new carpet!
* put away all my Christmas decor, put my apartment back together after getting new carpet, going through my clothes closet and dresser and getting rid of a lot of stuff.
* dinner and a movie with Steph - we watched Bride Wars and I enjoyed it a lot more the 2nd time.
* New Years Eve celebration with Rachel
* dinner and a movie with Jen. We saw "It's Complicated" today. The theater was PACKED and we had to sit in the front row. This is the second movie in a row that Jen and I have saw together and had to sit in the front row. It was worth the $4 but prolly not much more than that.

Now - I have 1 more day to enjoy before I'll head back to the grind. In some ways I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine but I also have plenty more projects I could do, people I could catch up with, and movies I could watch. I guess those items will wait till my next vacation!