I finally get a week off. Let me repeat that again: I FINALLY GET A WEEK OFF!!! I'm coming up on three years at this job, and while I've taken a few consecutive days to visit Florida, when moving, or to use up my days, I haven't had a full week off yet. At LIB we could always cover multiple people out with India and Argentina picking up the slack, but considering that for all intents and purposes I work alone at night for SIB, it's...not encouraged since we don't outsource 95% of what we do.

If you count in the weekends it will actually be 9 days off in a row, so I'll be tidying my apartment, going down to my parents for cookie baking and Christmas, laundry, etc, as well as celebrating a belated birthday for my Dad and my parents' anniversary. Those were on Tuesday and Thursday of this past week so I texted and have cards for them, but couldn't be there on those days. 

On the plus side, I've been sleeping better and recovering from my rough day in NYC, and while I have to call in the super to unclog my drains again I'm waiting until the new year for anything that is fairly major. For now I'll enjoy the time off, and enjoy spending time with family, imperfect as they are. All my gifts are bought and I dropped them off last weekend along with my stand mixer and cookie sheets so I'm set and ready to go for a marathon baking session. 

I miss baking, since I've been trying to lose weight for the past year and a half, and while I've been successful substituting fruit cups for dessert and popcorn for chips, I still have more to go so this will be a pleasant splurge. Baking is very meditative, and never in a hurry like cooking. But I'm 75 pounds down from my max weight. 15 more to go, then I can start making muffins and coffee cakes again :).