Five on Friday

Christmas Eve is a week away - one wee little week away. I am so looking forward to next Friday because I will be off work for the day and given how crazy work has been - I cannot wait. *sigh* 

And I've been all over the place this week with work/home/Christmas events/life in general... so this post will be picture heavy! I know, what a thrill! Shall we?

One. Boosted - The picture below has nothing to do with the title of this one... it's just a picture of my love whipping us up some Jambalaya for dinner on Sunday night! I was finally able to snag a COVID vaccination booster appointment for Monday after work and so I headed out from the office to get myself jabbed.

This was my first experience being vaccinated at a pharmacy (CVS - I'm looking at you) and it wasn't a bad experience but man was it quick! The pharmacist confirmed my identity, jabbed me in the arm and sent me on my way - I didn't even have to wait the fifteen minutes to make sure I didn't swell up or my head didn't explode...

While my arm didn't hurt too much this time around, I did wake up covered in sweat, with a raging fever in the early hours of Tuesday morning and endured a pretty fierce headache until around lunchtime on Tuesday. 

Two. Jordan Springs Lights - Tuesday night my parents and I went to nearby Jordan Springs to take in their Christmas decorations. Jordan Springs is a historic home located just outside the town where I live and honestly - I've heard about Jordan Springs from tons of people but this was my first time visiting!

The house has been a private home, a hotel and is now a huge event venue - a multitude of weddings are held at Jordan Springs each year and during the Christmas season, there can sometimes be 4-5 a weekend! Our wedding photographer did a wedding at Jordan Springs just last weekend and the pictures were stunning - and now I can see why so many people choose it - it is lovely!

The house is gigantic (there's a picture below) - it's easy to see how it was once a hotel. The house had three floors open: the basement, the main floor and the second floor - and each one was decked out! I especially loved all the bright white trees and flowers in the entryway and the room that looked like an enchanted indoor garden took my breath away!

 

The house offered delicious hot cider, hot chocolate and cocktails for purchase as you perused the house and so we wandered from room to room taking in all the twinkle lights, greenery and historical settings. It was a fun way to kick off celebrating the Christmas season and I enjoyed getting the chance to see the place. I'd love to go back in the Spring and check it out more!

Three. Celebrations Begin - Our Christmas celebrations have begun this week and will spread out over the next week and a half... we began our festivities celebrating my Mom's birthday a bit belatedly on Monday night (her birthday is December 10th). I made her a chocolate cake filled with marshmallow crème and topped with evergreen trees!  

 

 

Wednesday night we celebrated with our friends The Hunts; their two youngest daughters will be our flower girls next November. We had dinner at Mission BBQ and then came back to my parents house to have dessert and open gifts. I have learned that my fiancé is a big fan of opening presents and cannot wait to get the chance to tear into some in the coming days...

Four. Christmas Cookies - Thursday night we made our traditional batch of Christmas cookies and roped Ryan into decorating one or two! We turned on the movie Christmas Vacation and once the cookies had cooled, we set to decorating the cookies - which were all snowmen and Christmas trees.

 

Some of them ended up a little wild looking - but I suppose you have to go where the artistic inspiration takes you and just make a tree that is covered in rainbow lines. Christmas Vacation always leaves me feeling happy and light, so between the sugar cookies and the festive laughs - it was a nice way to spend a Thursday night!

Five. Weekend Plans - We are celebrating Christmas with my parents this weekend and so there will be all the things that go along with that: Christmas dinner, presents and as a special treat we are going to Enchant! in DC on Saturday evening! We attended Enchant last year and really loved it - so we thought that would be a fun thing to do again this year.

Beyond enjoying some Christmas festivities - I honestly just want to be low key on this Friday night and Sunday. I also would love to sleep in some on Saturday and all in all just relax around the house. I cannot believe we are one week away from Christmas Eve; this Christmas season has passed in a blur.

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Tis the season - and this weekend will fully kick off our festivities. Christmas with my family on Saturday, Christmas with family friends on Monday night, Ryan will be sharing Christmas with his daughter mid-week and then Ryan and I will share our first Christmas together next weekend! I'm sure it will pass just as quickly as the weeks previous have - so I am going to do my best to soak in it!