Oh, and I Haven't Got Any Christmas Presents Yet.

As promised, it was a busy couple of days. I jetted four hours down to Dayton for a work retreat, then jetted back in time for our party. And now, I'm safely nestled back home for the next ten days.

Wait. There's only ten days until Christmas?!

Highlights include:

• A thousand cries of "Ms. Ashley!" when I walked into the room.
• Swarms of children hugging me...the ultimate mood boost.
• "Ms. Ashley, will you come back? The new teachers are boring."
• Drinking several bottles of wine with three of the finest people I know.
• Not having a headache the next day. (I get "hungover" after ONE glass of wine sometimes. ONE!)
• Work gossip, five months I leave the place.
• Seeing a friend before she left to move across the country to Portland.
• One of "those" nights. {The kind of night when you hang out for hours on end, just talking. Change in on the horizon, but for now - a cozy conversation and laughter is perfect.}
• Taking a personality test and finding that "art director" and "graphic designer" were in my top ten career choices. Score.
• Continuing to be "middle of the road" in my personality. I'm a little bit of everything, really. It doesn't make me wishy-washy, it makes me adaptable!
• Playing hide-and-go-seek with an adorable 5-year-old with dimples and a blonde braid.
• Etsy! What a blessing Etsy has been - both with my lil' shoppe as a creative outlet, and with all the other awesome shops that inspire me and that give me hope for being my own independent business someday. (Not to mention, give me awesome gifts!)
• Getting into a huge, long discussion/intervention with Mike about my future career (er, lack of direction.). I ended up crying and completely depressed. I'm so pretty.
• UGLY SWEATER PARTY! My first party, outside of college, that I helped host. And, in true Ashley-style, we only decided a week beforehand to throw it.
• Amazing baked brie. Amazing, people.
• Turning two friends onto green olives and cream cheese, aka: The best snack, ever.
• Opening a wine bottle sans corkscrew. With a butter knife. I am awesome, huh?
• My new scarf from the scarf exchange from Sarah:
  

She's so adorable and thoughtful. She picked this one out because it was natural colors and small "so as to not overwhelm" my small frame. Adorable! (She also bought it from Etsy, to support "small business owners like yourself" and recycled all the packaging! What a doll.)