TGIF!

First off, I have to wish my parents a VERY HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY!! 50 years - can you even wrap your mind around that? I can't! I'm very lucky to have been raised by parents who gave us such an excellent example of a healthy, happy marriage. I can't wait to celebrate this landmark anniversary in January. My whole family - all 20 of us with spouses/grandkids - will be gathering at a resort in Minnesota in early January.

Now back to the post at hand - I am especially excited that it's Friday as I am off work through Wednesday! I need to monitor emails from home on Monday/Tuesday but I am sure it will be very quiet! Here's a TGIF recap of my week!

The book I'm reading is City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. I had 3 library books to choose from - City of Girls, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, and Recursion. I've heard mixed reviews of City of Girls but decided to give it a try. If it falls flat for me early on, I'll abandon it! The other 2 library books are due on December 28th - maybe I will get to one other one by then? We'll see!

The high of my week was several things! First, we closed on the sale of our house on Tuesday! Woot, woot! It feels good to only own one house. Then on Tuesday night I got together with some girlfriends to celebrate a friend's birthday. Most of the girls went to college with Phil - another girl and I are married to guys who went to college with them. They've taken us under their wing, though. It was a fun night with lots of laughter and delicious Mexican food.

The low of my week was feeling under the weather. This has been a theme of our fall - one of us is always sick! Paul is back to full health but Phil and I have been battling different strains of a cold virus for months. It's getting a bit old! I came home mid-day on Wednesday as I felt so dizzy and just off. I ended up sleeping for 3 hours but still went to bed around 9 that night so my body was definitely fighting something. I opted to work from home the last 2 days because I still don't feel great and don't want to spread my germs.

A recipe I made was Creole chicken and sausage bowls in the instant pot. Our instant pot is definitely our most-used appliance! I highly recommend it. Meals come together so fast!

The best money spent was the cash for Paul's daycare teachers holiday/thank you cards. We are "team cash" when it comes to gifts for his teachers. It's less personal but we include a nice note in the card about how thankful we are for them. It's well known that daycare teachers aren't well compensated. They work so hard and take such good care of Paul that we feel the best gift for them at the holidays is cash. 

My plans this weekend include very little. I was supposed to go to Phil's work holiday party tonight but I canceled our sitter and am staying in with Paul. Phil will still go. I just don't feel well enough to be out and about and to stay up past 9. Ha. Tomorrow we have our last swimming lesson of the term and some friends are swinging in the late morning to see our house. That's it for plans, though! We are having Christmas at our house so I'll be busy planning/preparing for that meal. We are having ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, glazed carrots, corn casserole, and chocolate pie for dessert. I'm also going to make GF cinnamon rolls from scratch for Christmas Day. I've never made them before - fingers crossed they turn out!

What was the high of your week? Are you ready for Christmas?