holiday weekend

i had a super busy weekend. for the first time since march i gave myself permission to take a day off from both work and the gym. GASP!!!...i know i can't really believe it either, no workout for me on saturday. but a little relaxation break/mental break from the gym felt good, and you know what?, it's ok. i do what is best for me. and in all honesty knowing that i'm going to achieve my goal for the year kinda makes me want to slow down for this month...because i feel like i have to leave something for next year. is that weird?

anyways. after not going to the gym saturday morning, i had a relaxing breakfast followed by 3 holiday parties. oh yes, count them again. one.two.three. parties. back to back to back.

the first was a gingerbread making party! i'm pretty sure that this was my first time ever making a gingerbread house...and my my it was messy and not all that easy. and i'm not as artistic as i hoped i would be! but still a fabulous time was had by all since i was surrounded by lots and lots of sugary candy and good good friends! thanks to SVZ for hosting!

the start

the goodies

my plain gingerbread house

after the gingerbread making festivities i headed down to denver for a jewelry party to see a couple of old coworkers that i haven't seen in a couple of years.

then it was off to a surprise holiday party! this was in honor of my very good friend Sarah. Sarah is kickass at pretty much everything that she does. she's a great friend (seriously the best ever), she has awesome taste in music, she wears glitter eye shadow, she's an amazing dancer, has the coolest workout shoes ever, she kicks my ass twice a week in STRIKE! as the best group fitness instructor out there, ...oh and, she looks like P!NK! all of those things combined you can't help but love her, hang out with her, and want to show your appreciation. so what is what we did.
my friend april had this idea a few months ago to try and get a collection of money together to get Sarah some gift cards as a holiday "thank you" "you rock" type of gift. needless to say this idea got HUGE, and way beyond all of our expectations. april collected an insane amount of money, and saturday night we all came together to surprise sarah and present her with her gifts!

in she walks...SURPRISE!

oh yes Sarah this is all for YOU

kortny, annaebelle, me, and christina

jason, sarah, annabelle, christina, me, aaron, april
denise, bobby, korty, and tina

sarah and i - love her!

this night was amazing. everything went perfectly! we all celebrated at the happy sumo. had great drinks and super yummy sushi! i am so grateful to have such a solid group of friends. it has seriously been so long since i have felt so strengthened by the friends around me. i think mainly because these friends are physically here. of course i love my friends that are far but having friends physically here for me makes such a huge difference. with these friends in my life i feel as though my life now is finally coming together exactly how it should.

50/50 60min