Happy Monday and Merry Christmas Eve to you!

I'm enjoying my time in Arizona with Rob's family and his awesome, adorable nephew. Our flight on Saturday was wonderful and I immediately ate a burger and fries from In-N-Out, and who can complain about that?

Today, Rob and I are having lunch with my aunt and uncle who live in the area, and then I think we'll do some exploring around Scottsdale and Mesa. There's a coffee shop I want to try out, but other than that I'm not sure what I should be doing! Does anyone familiar with the area have any suggestions for me?

My blog posting might be sporadic over the next couple of days, so feel free to follow along on Instagram!

I feel like I say this every Friday, but this has been an unbelievable week. I don't think I've ever been so busy at work! Last night was our office holiday party and even though I had to rush a bit to get there in time, it was fun to get all dolled up and relax with my work friends. 

Photo by LHC.

Here's a quick list of some links I've loved over the past week or so:

I'm not even a fan of Pope Benedict XVI, but for some reason this story about him on Twitter warmed my heart.

(But then I read this and I'm like ugh, nevermind.)

A thoughtful post from Vanessa: Our Daughter's First Haircut & Teaching Girls Independence.

The Great Gatsby cast looks so fabulous in these posters.

A good read about Anonymous and the Westboro Baptist Church. Read the whole article and you can find a few links to sign petitions to legally recognize these terrible people as a hate group and also have their tax exempt status reevaluated.

This gold and brown Marc Jacobs watch is so perfect that I want to eat it.

How You Can Help: Memorial Donations for Sandy Hook Victims

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Tomorrow I'm off to Arizona for Christmas! Have a wonderful weekend!

[Oh, Christmas tree.]

Watching lots of re-runs of shows I love. Boardwalk Empire ended a few weeks ago (holy hell, that season!), and so I've been watching old episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family. I love both of those shows--they make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, as dumb as that might sound. But I love the friends/family dynamic and each episode is just so good.

Thinking about everyone who lost a child or loved one last Friday. I can't get it out of my head. My eyes fill up with tears just thinking about it, and even though I haven't been directly affected by the tragedy, it really just feels too big to deal with right now. Last night I sat down to address some Christmas cards and couldn't figure out who to send some of them to, and it just seemed ridiculous that we're in the middle of this holiday season, thinking about traffic and two-day shipping.

Listening to What We Saw from the Cheap Seats by Regina Spektor. It came out a while ago, but I've just been feeling it lately. I love everything Regina does. My favorite songs on the album are How? and Patron Saint. But they're all good.

Excited about going to Arizona for Christmas! I've always spent Christmas at home with my family, and I think maybe two years ago Rob was here with us, and then last year we went separate ways and hung out with our own families in Roanoke and Charlotte, and this year we'll be in Scottsdale with his family to visit Rob's oldest brother and baby nephew!

Reading lots of things! I'm almost done with Les Miserables and I have every intention of finishing it before Christmas so we can go see the new movie which, by the way, gives me major passion eyes with just a view of the trailer.

Loving going to bed really early. It doesn't happen that much, but when it does it is so magical. I get whatever I wanted to do finished, or I just say forget it because it was probably something trivial, like painting my nails, and at 8:30 or 9:00 PM I take off my makeup and brush my teeth and set my alarm and then literally read until I fall asleep. I always wake up feeling awesome after an early night like that.

Looking forward to my office holiday party on Thursday night, as well as the next four weeks or so. Unfortunately Rob won't be able to make it because he has to work both Thursday and Friday in northern Virginia, but my brother is home for winter break now and he's going to go with me! It's so nice to have Sean home--he's one of my best friends! I actually get a little sad when he leaves to go hang out with his friends and I stay behind--I want to hang out! I want to be on winter break!

What are you up to currently?

Thanks, as always, to my friend Dani for inspiring these posts!