Christmas Eve: Not Sarajvo 2013

I am pleased to announce that I am all done with school. I completed the form with the proper name to put on my graduate certificate and it should be mailed to me on December 30th.

Whew. 

I have been told by multiple people that they REALLY missed my updates so now that school is over, I have made a promise to be better at this :)

Latest news to catch you all up and then I'll be back in the swing of things:

1. Received my annual review. I rock, as usual. Got a nice raise and bonus. 

2. Had a quiet little birthday with a few friends. I had a "My Favourite Things" party (yes, named after the song). The invitations were "brown paper packages tied up with string" as you can see in the photo below: 

The idea of the party was that each person brought a few of their favourite things to share with everyone else! That way, everyone got presents, not just the birthday girl. It was a quiet cozy last minute affair due to my finals being right after. I made schnitzel with noodles and for hors de oeuvres I made those yummy little cocktail hot dogs and a home made mustard beer cheese dip with hot soft pretzel bites. Everyone brought fun stuff to share with others: a pint of Fireball cinnamon whiskey for each of us, Yankee Candles, cupcakes, and Alpha showed up with his arms stacked high with Krispey Creme donut boxes! A dozen maple glazed for each of us. So, yes. We sat around and sipped whiskey and ate donuts while it snowed. Merlin topped the evening off with a home made baked Alaska which he set on fire with cognac making a spectacular and splendid show :)

3. I have been down with an injury for a few weeks. Managed to pop a rib head while bench pressing and pinch a nerve. I have had my arm in a sling for two weeks and, quite frankly, am annoyed and sick of being hurt. 

4. I am currently working on my new goals for the new year. More on those in the days to come.

5. I finally got an assistant!!!!!! Yay! He has been an absolute life saver and I made sure to recognize him with an award at the end of this year. He doesn't realize I am secretly grooming him to take my place...more on that later ;) shhhhh

6. Got yet another section of my tattoo sleeve done. I will share a photo with you when I write up the piece on that.

I'm sure there is more but it seems like so much so I'll just continue to catch y'all up. I'm off to have Xmas dinner and stuff stockings and cuddle up to some movies with P and Thomas tonight.

A merry christmas to all and to all a good night!