Happy Holidays!

I really wanted to title our holiday cards this year, "naughty or nice?" but that was just too mean to Jewels. Everyone knows she's the "naughty" puppy of the group.

Yes, we also turned into those people who only send out holiday cards with photos of their pets. That so happened!

However you and yours are celebrating this weekend, our household wishes you nothing but the best. Be safe! Have fun! Eat lots of good food! And if you can, drink a bit of wine!!!

The annual office holiday party

I love my job. There, I said it. I know that's taboo to say in some places and it can be quite uncool to proudly proclaim it, but I really do love my job. Are there days that I'm not feeling the love? Absolutely, I am human after all. However, those days really are far and few in between. It's not just working in housing and community development that makes me happy, but it's also the company that I work for and the amazing people that I work with that keep me in a perpetual happy state. I can honestly say that I have friends who get sick and tired of me always saying that I love my job. It's that annoying.

This year I celebrated my two-year anniversary at my company in October and last weekend enjoyed my third office holiday party. Let me just get something out there about my office: we like to work and play hard. We take our work very seriously and we take our holiday parties very seriously. This year was a very nice affair at a lovely locale in downtown Washington, D.C. and the hubs and I decided to abandon surburbia and spend the night in our nation's capitol. I told the hubs that before we headed back to the hotel I wanted to walk by the White House to see it lit up at night. Yeah, that so didn't happen :)

About two hours into a wonderful party the company president and vice-president started the annual speeches and gave out a few awards. The hubs and I snagged a nice, quiet table in the back corner and had a wonderful view of the whole room. All in all things were going well.

Then, disaster stroke.

The ridiculously tall, yet gorgeous Miss M over at District Sparkle took my camera from me. I stood up to take a few pictures during the speeches and she just sauntered over in her 6inch sparkly high heels and red dress and just snatched my camera from me. My 5'7" self couldn't match her height, so I just handed the camera over and trusted that she wouldn't drop it.

Seriously people, don't be fooled by her love of all things sparkly. She's intimidating!

One year I'm going to learn how to keep my eyes open in a picture. I swear that's going on the New Year's Resolution List for 2012!

Then, the biggest award of the night was being handed out and I was sitting quietly in back paying attention when low and behold, my name got announced.

Yeah, that's how I roll. Win an award and I cover up and try to duck under the table. Chances are I covered my mouth because I was afraid I'd say something really embarrassing like "Jean Louise Finch" because when I swear, I don't actually swear. Or, I said, "you've got to be kidding me." It's a toss up really.

The next half an hour went by in a blur. You know why I don't like winning awards? Because then everyone wants to come up and congratulate you and even worse, take their picture with you. I actually like giving speeches, but I really just don't like standing up in front of people. I despise having my picture taken. I have terrible posture, smile too big, and more often than not give off crazy eyes. I can usually get one normal smile out of about ten pictures. I know a few of my co-workers flipped through their pictures from the holiday party and thought, "why does Heidi look like she's about to be electrocuted?"

However, I do remember being happy to have a picture with my two office "moms." We travel together for work quite a bit and there have been numerous times where each have been accused of being my mom.

Seriously, also adding "stand up straight" to the 2012 New Year's Resolution List. No wonder I always have back pain!

Thanks Miss M for the pictures and for letting me borrow your sparkly gold belt. It really helped jazz up my $25 J. Crew dress :)

(Sadly, the office crew is a blonde short! These chic ladies are part of the reason my bank account hates my shopping habits)

The funniest part of the night was when of my co-workers came up to the hubs and I and said, "great, Heidi, you got me in trouble. He's (pointing to her husband) mad at me for not thanking him during my speech."

Whoops! Of course when I got up and thanked my office for the honor I told an entire room of people that I didn't do anything in life without the support of my husband and I thanked him for being my partner in crime.

Was I not supposed to do that?

When we were getting ready to leave (*cough* to head out to a bar) after the party the hubs and I were saying goodbyes to a few co-workers and someone said to the hubs, "are you proud Heidi won?"

His response, "I'm proud of her every day."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I typically avoid wearing mascara. The dude barely talks and then he has to lay out something like that on me. I know he's proud of me, but I don't typically think it and I don't remember the last time he said it out loud or even to another person.

That's enough attention for me. I'm going to go burry my head in the covers and not come out for a few days.

Coming home for the holidays

Due to some pretty intense travel schedules to finish off the year, the hubs and I haven't spent a full week together since the beginning of October. Actually, the longest amount of time we've spent together during that time period was the four day weekend for Thanksgiving. It's been hectic and crazy.

To make matters worse, downtown Detroit is lit up like a Christmas tree. Well, actually there's a giant Christmas tree, plus a whole host of other Christmas trees. It's making me miss the hubs like crazy. To me, the holidays are spent with family and just thinking about the holidays makes me think about family. The hubs is the biggest part of my family, so not spending time with him is making things pretty rough.

This sight last night wasn't making things any easier:

Festive holiday lights - CHECK!

Giant Christmas tree - CHECK!

Adorable kids ice skating - CHECK!

Hot chocolate - CHECK!

Families with dogs - CHECK! (can't see them in the picture, but there was a very cute dad with two beagles cheering on his kids out on the ice)

The saddest part is I'll be home Thursday night and yet the hubs is working over nights this week, which means I won't see him until Friday night. Not terrible, but it's getting old.

I know I sound really whiny and I know there are families who spend far greater time apart than we do. My heart goes out to them and I hope my whines don't offend them. This is just unusual for us and it's the switch in routine that's really got me out of whack. I'm tired of cooking for one, I'm tired of eating out, and I'm just tired of not having my nightly laughter filled moments with my best friend.

I'm looking forward to Christmas more than ever this year because we'll both have a full week off from work and we'll get to spend almost every blessed moment together. Then, we'll probably be sick of each other!

Happy early 30th birthday to me! (Almost)

Well, not really. I don't turn 30 until February.

In the year 2012.

As in well over a year from now. So far from now that I should take down the mental countdown, delete my birthday list, and just focus on the present. Wait, did someone say present?

In true crazy form, I've not-so-subtly told the hubs that he has to buy me a, "rocking pair of shoes" for my 30th birthday. The heels better be thin and high, you know, everything my legs aren't. They better be from somewhere awesome. Honestly, if Choo, Louboutin, Prada, or Manolo aren't involved, well then I'm not interested.

Oddly enough, the hubs gets it. I mentioned buying a baseball glove one time for him and apparently it didn't contain the right word and he looked at me and asked me if I was crazy. The only minor difference in this story is that the hubs went ahead and bought his crazy expensive glove and well I am still waiting on a cool pair of kicks to show up in my closet.

But that day almost happened yesterday. I was at Neiman Marcus and I still can't figure out why, but there were 10 pairs of Christian Louboutin pumps just sitting out on the sale rack. Like a kid in a candy store I grabbed whatever I could get my hands on and ran to find a nice, secluded bench to caress my precious loves.

I know sizing can be off, so I grabbed the first 9 and 10s I saw and figured I'd try them on first.

The 9s weren't even close!

Up next I tried the Verde in a 10. It fit perfectly! However, even though the color is Amethyst, it was a bit too pink for my liking. Plus, it's a suede shoe. I have a few pairs of suede shoes and while I love them, I know I'm rough on the material and they won't last as long as a nice leather pair will.

However, it was very difficult to leave them when they were on sale for $402. Yes, that's a TON of money for a pair of shoes, but they're on every major website right now for $945. They had the smallest scruff in the sole on one shoe and that's probably why they were heavily discounted. Seriously, if you didn't have your soles treated that scruff would have happened in two seconds on any hard floor. Sigh!!!

Then, while I was heading out I saw these.

I die. The shoe of all shoes. The Christian Louboutin Very Prive. I want her. I need her. In nude patent leather. An absolutely timeless shoe.

They were a 40.5 and the tiniest bit too big. But, I didn't care. I had them on my feet and I wanted them. I immediately did what anyone would do in a situation like this.

I called for backup. Thankfully, I know a semi-rational fashionista and we've been lusting over a pair of Louboutins for years. She said exactly what I didn't want to say aloud.

"How high is the heel?"

(in a whisper)

"They're the 120mm. So a bit higher than the Simples I really wanted."

After a few agonizing minutes I knew my friend was right when she said it. "Are you going to be comfortable in them? In that color these are an everyday shoe. Something you're going to wear every where. Can you walk in them that much? If they were black or had spiked heels they'd be going out shoes and then completely appropriate. "

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly, I knew what she was saying was true. If they were in purple I would have easily thrown down my Visa card and called it a day.

They're too high for me. There I said it. I wore them for 10 minutes and I can't get them out of my head. However, they did make me almost six foot tall, which is far too tall for me! I wanted them so badly. Did I mention the price? They were marked down to $380. I know, they were practically FREE! I couldn't find a single imperfection on the shoes anywhere. On the other hand, their box was ripped. Yeah, ripping a box causes the shoes to drop for $785 to $380. It was insane.

Sigh....

I even sent the hubs a text asking him if I could get my 30th birthday present in advance. I think the hubs needs to send flowers to Miss M over at District Sparkle for rationalizing with me and allowing me to walk away from those shoes.

I'm fighting off every form of temptation to drive back to the store and see if they're still there. If I see them again, I might not be able to walk away! One day my precious ... we'll meet again.