Make Mine a Cosmo

I will officially have been back to work a full month on Monday!  It's been so weird -- it's like I never left!  KJ and Cosmo have adjusted well and have helped pick up the slack at home since I have such a long commute.  I'm very, very fortunate.  I like both my job AND the people I work with.  KJ came into work with me the day after Thanksgiving and we helped make wreaths and decorate the hotel for Christmas.  The following week we had a Manager's Reception and the hotel looked absolutely amazing!  Plus, KJ received SSL hours for her help with decorating.  Bonus!

Since I went back to work with zero warning or notice (and my time in PA for my cousin's funeral), I'm a bit behind on my Christmas shopping and decorating but will manage.  T flies in tomorrow and I know she will be a big help to me.  She always is.  I can give that girl a list a mile long and she'll get everything done and then some.  She can help me with my wrapping and mailing cards and packages for me.

The "travel tree" is up in the family room (it's filled with ornaments from all of our travels over the years) but we've been waiting until T came home to cut down the living room tree as a family.  We'll take our Christmas card photo Sunday at the tree farm.  My dining room is semi set.  I have some tweaking left to do.  The family room mantel is also semi set and still needs some work.

Really, really, really looking forward to having everyone here for the holidays!  It's going to be insane and I may have to get a prescription for Xanax or something!  Cosmo said he's going to pull a Clark Griswold and drink a lot of Jack Daniels.  We're meeting the Palm Beach side of the family in NYC prior to the holidays and then they'll be at our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.   Cosmo's niece and her hubby will also be at my house for Christmas dinner.  My mom and dad will be here for the entire week. The day after Christmas we're all heading to DC for the day and I've made dinner reservations for 11 at a fun restaurant in Georgetown.  Saturday the Palm Beach relations fly out, my bro and his fam arrive.

KJ has had a busy couple of weeks.  High School volleyball is officially over and we had a great time at the end of year banquet.  She went right into club volleyball and is doing really great at practice.  She is so intense on the court.  Both girls definately get their competitiveness from their father.  So, after the beginning of the year our weekends will be spent at volleyball tournaments (I think we're even going to a tourney in Atlantic City.  Haven't been there in YEARS!!!).  And she still swears she's going to play High School lax (yay!!!!).

T has been busy as well.  The weekend before Thanksgiving she competed in and won the Miss Amory title.  She is very, very excited to be working with Mr. Miller, her new diretor.  She had an incredible experience with her Miss Metro Jackson director(s) and Mr. Miller is very well known and very respected in the pageant community.  So far, she was in the Amory Christmas parade and also attended the local production of the Nutcracker.  She has a clothing sponsor this year which is super nice.  They dress her for all of her appearances.

She's had a great semester and I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that she'll be a senior next year.  She's still got her weekly DJ morning gig.  She's writing for an on-line Greek column, she was the Thursday night anchor for NewsWatch 99 and spent some time on the sidelines at football games for the Sports Photography class.  She's been applying for internships here in DC for the summer and has an interview scheduled while she's home.  At 20 years old that girl has quite an impressive resume!