Christmastime

(Just pretend I posted this last week.)

I love Christmas! The decorations...the shopping...the music...spending time with loved ones....it's all great!

While out shopping for some last minute gifts a few days before Christmas, I found myself to be in such a joyous mood. At the mall I was smiling, humming along to Christmas music, and just enjoying myself in general. Such a wonderful time of year.

My boyfriend went to his parents house in New York state for the holidays, and I stayed at home because I was working. Since we weren't going to be together for Christmas, we decided to exchange gifts early. In my opinion, guys are extremely hard to shop for. So I ended up giving him some specialty food items, a few things for his cars, and some new socks. (Lame, I know. But he seriously needed new socks.)

In return I received a new vacuum cleaner and a new bedspread set. I'm extremely happy with the presents because I needed and wanted both of them.

The old vacuum cleaner I have is from my very first apartment. It's small and wails this high pitch frequency that drives me and the cats crazy. There are no attachments for the old vacuum, so I have to bring in the shop vac to reach corners and under couches.

My new vacuum is a Hoover Whisper and it is much quieter. It also has a handle that pops out to suck up anything in the corners or other hard to reach places. A furniture brush and a crevice tool also came with the vacuum cleaner.

See the difference between the old one and new one:

As you can tell, the new vacuum is a big upgrade from the last. Even though I'm 27, have been out of college for 5 years, and have been living in my own place for almost 5 years, there are days when I still feel like a college student and not an adult. Does anyone else feel that way?

So I feel like these gifts are helping me and my boyfriend become better adults. Or at least the gifts make me feel like more of an adult and that I really am 27 and graduated college 5 years ago.

Here's the gorgeous bedspread:

Right now we have it flipped over so this side is down and the solid red side is up. I'm so afraid that the cats are going to tear up the bedspread on accident with their claws, so I'm trying to take preventative measures against that.

So far, we love the new bedspread. It's nice and warm, soft, fluffy, and comfy. The cats even like it because they have been sleeping in bed more often lately.

I spent Christmas morning at work and then drove to my parents afterwards. I had a good time back at home. They have 4 dogs living there right now and it's always fun to play with them and get kisses in return.

My family had a good Christmas and I completed another thing on my 101 list. For a Christmas present, my mom told me to go out and buy some business clothes and she would reimburse me for Christmas. But I would have to give her the clothes and wouldn't get them until Christmas. So Christmas morning when my sisters were opening 1 expensive present, I had 5 cheaper presents to open. YEA for bargain shopping and coupons! I wasn't expecting to buy all my new business clothes at once, but that's just how it turned out. There are probably a few other things I can buy (ie: jackets, jewelry, etc), but I will start picking that up when I have a need for them.

I also received some kitchen gadgets that I will have to try out and report back on later. I promise to take lots of pictures when I use them and to blog about it.

I finally have a few days off this week, so I've been busy cleaning up the house and getting things in order before having to go back to work. Hopefully I can whittle down my to do list before the days over today. :)