Holidays, con't

Back to work tomorrow unfortunately, but this has been a truly relaxing and delightful week off. I've been lucky enough to spend the majority of my time either curled up on the couch with a book, in a yoga class, or spending time with my wonderful husband, friends and family. I've watched a few of my favorite films, re-read Harry Potter books 1 - 6 (yay!) baked several batches of cookies, and even managed to squeeze in a few outdoor runs before the temperature inexplicably spiked to 50 before shooting back below zero, causing all of the snow to melt, then freeze into a treacherous sheet of ice over all the roads and sidewalks. Welcome to Minnesota.

Last night we went to our friend Tyler's girlfriend's place for a night of drinks, gaming and comraderie. The gaming didn't really get very far ~ everyone was too busy chatting so we managed one round of Cards Against Humanity before it was time to toast the new year. Then we devolved into pushup and pull-up contests and I answered the long pondered question of "how many pull-ups can I do while hanging off the edge of the woodwork in my friends' dining room" the answer being 2.5. This was obviously followed by a long and in-depth discussion on Neil Gaiman's novels, which quickly expanded to literature in general. And then goofy photos. Perfect night.

Skype sesh with Julianna on Christmas Day

Sinking Titanic Cookie - courtesy of Nasty Christmas

Bedecked dog, also courtesy of Nasty Christmas

Sleeping Cat

Annual family spritz bake

Double rainbow in the dining room

Re-visiting old favorites

New Years friend times

Tyler and Dani our gracious hosts

Brief but successful game of CAH

Goofiness ensues

...and continues

Happy New Year :)

Here's to a happy and wonderful 2014 ~ let's make the most of it.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day [in photos]

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday week, and if you celebrate Christmas I hope it was as full of love, laughter and good food as ours was :)

Making Christmas Eve Dinner
...behold, my cooking face

Dinner at Chez MacKenzie (our place) with my parents

Holiday decor

Ready to Bach and Roll

After 2 services and the Bach, this was the extent of my capabilities

Christmas morning - opening a special MacKenzie scotch from my dad

The two greatest books ever written

Obligatory photo in front of the tree

gift from Ben ~ a lovely mug from Mammaste

More gifts from my awesome husband

...and yoga books from my parents, yay!

I gave Ben this dashing coat...now he just looks ridiculously scottish all the time

Merry Christmas, peace and love to you and yours <3 div="">

Christmas is coming...

HOORAY!!! Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday and has been since...forever ~ the snow, the lights, trees, baking, music, family, everything I love wrapped up in a bow with time off from work as an added bonus. One of my fondest childhood memories is decorating the tree with my dad. We would put on the lights (well, he would...I was too short), hang all the ornaments (this I actually did help with) and when we were done, we would sit in the living room with some hot tea or hot cocoa, and just look at the tree, taking up half the room, shining and colorful. It might sound boring, but when I was little it felt magical.

 I work the rest of this week, as well as next Monday and Tuesday but then I am off for a WHOLE WEEK. My agenda during this time includes:

• Choir. Lots of choir. We have an evening service on Saturday, a three hour rehearsal with orchestra on Monday, and two services + a special performance (Bach!) on Christmas Eve. I am also singing in 2 small ensembles this year (a sextet and a trio) so I've been putting in some time on the side, it's been a while since I had to sing over an orchestra. Like...many years. Haha.
• Caroling! Ben and I are going caroling on Sunday with some friends from choir. I haven't been caroling in years so I am pretty pumped about this...although, it is supposed to be cold this weekend. I'm sure we will survive.
• Baking. You bet your sweet buns I will be making at least 85 batches of cookies over the next week, time to stock up on butter I guess.
• White Elephant party. One of my favorite traditions is the "Nasty Christmas" party my friends and I throw every year. 
• Watching/reading Harry Potter!! Ben and I started a tradition last year of watching all 8 HP movies between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We just watched Order of the Phoenix on Tuesday, so Half Blood Prince is queued up for this weekend. We also bought the new paperback set and I'm hoping I can plow through a re-read over break. We shall see. 
• Yoga (as always)
• Running (as always)
• Collaging. It's been a while since I made a yoga collage (2 years ago I did Shiva, and the year before that I did Kali). I have a great idea for my next one, I just need to pull all of the materials together. Can't wait :)

In case you were feeling sad that you can't make it to my stunning choir performances,
here is a sexy photo of me in my robe, with my dad. You're welcome.

Delightful cookies from last year's Nasty Christmas

Example of an appropriate Nasty Christmas gift

Last year's haul - rubber duck headphones

2011's creative efforts

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for (or not)...Christmas Survey! I found this on Janae's blog and thought I would re-post even though it's old.

1. Favorite Christmas Album/CD/Song?

Sufjan Stevens ~ Songs for Christmas

Favorite tracks: 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 31, 38, 41. Mostly stripped down, minimalist but new takes on classics. My fave.

2.  Run on Christmas morning or take the day off?

I will probably either run or practice yoga on Christmas...yoga seems more appropriate maybe.

3.  What do you usually eat on Christmas morning?

Pancakes! For years, I have been in charge of coffee and pancakes on Christmas morning...I think it just happened one year and the tradition stuck.

4.  Favorite holiday or Christmas tradition?

Harry Potter marathon. Baking with my dad. At one point, my whole family (dad's side) used to congregate at our place for Christmas and we would all sing carols around the piano on Christmas Eve. It got pretty out of control, especially the 12 days of Christmas which basically became a challenge to see how far over the top we could take "five golden rings"...I think I have a video of this somewhere. 

5.  Real tree, fake tree or no tree?

I prefer a real tree, but we have a fake one. My cat likes to eat any plant within her reach (which is everywhere) so, real tree is out unfortunately :(

6.  Christmas pajamas… yay or nay?

Oh, for sure yay. Absolutely.

7.  Where do you spend the holidays?  Your own house, your parents’ house, extended family, in-laws, friends?

Christmas Eve is full of choir nonsense, so we usually spend it with my parents and we spend Christmas morning with them as well. Christmas day we meet up with Ben's family.

8.  Food that you always have during the holiday season?  Favorite Christmas food/treat?

Spritz cookies! And unlimited hot cocoa.

9. Open presents all at once or take turns?  Stockings… yes or no?

Take turns. Stockings = YES but my parents are scrooges, so I may have to take stocking stuffer duty this year. Surprise, bitches YOU ALL GET COAL.

Kidding...kidding. They will all get delightful treats in their stockings. And maybe also coal.

10.  Favorite Christmas(ish) movie?

Miracle on 34th Street (the original)

Randoms, and the joys of stress baking

Please observe the super healthy breakfast I made for myself and Ben on Saturday...and yes, we demolished half of the pan by ourselves in under an hour. It's cool, you don't have to tell me how awesome and impressive we are. We know.

APPLE CRISP! Favorite of fall baking

On Sunday, my mom came over after church/choir and helped us rake leaves in the backyard. There were a LOT of leaves...like, a whole lot. The maple tree on our neighbor's property (the same tree that is infested with carptenter ants that like to invade our attic) drops most of its leaves into our backyard every fall, and we rake and dispose of them. Delightful.

Ben and my mom, hard at work. Don't worry, I was helping too :)

The fruits of our labor

This has been a rough week at work. I don't really want to get into it (also, can't really get into it, nondisclosure and legality blah blah blah) but Monday and Tuesday were especially stressful. Luckily, Monday is was saved by some quiet reading time and an amazing yoga class. Most Mondays I head to my favorite coffee shop and relax with a book and a beverage (this time, mint tea) and then head to my favorite yoga class at 7. Currently I'm reading this book which is fascinating and also terrifying...I'm only about 1/4 of the way through but so far I highly recommend it.

Class was PERFECT and exactly what I needed. I do love to push and challenge myself in my yoga practice, "do the thing that scares you" and whatnot. But there is a time and a place for that, and there is a time and a place for...not that. There are poses that actually do make me feel fear, and I will pretty much only ever do them if forced (visvamitrasana, he full form of vasistasana with the leg up, and upavistha konasana), and also poses that are not scary but are definitely confrontational (urdhva dhanurasana, dhanurasana, pinca mayurasana...so basically backbends) and these are great and beneficial poses. But some days I'm like crap, this entire day has been confrontational; can I just do some hip openers and stretch my hammies and do my favorite arm balances? And on Monday the answer was YES. For the record, this is my favorite pose.

Tea + Book + Yoga = happy times

At some point during the day on Tuesday I consumed five mini Milky Ways in a fit of blind rage and sent Ben some very violent and probably concerning text messages about punching people in the throat. Luckily, I did not punch anyone and instead channelled all of my stress into a batch of ghost cookies which I then decorated with pink sparkles because why not. And I ate them while watching Sleepy Hollow and New Girl, so I immediately felt one billion times better about life.

The products of my rage

Today I worked from home (again! yay!) because I had a coffee meeting in the morning near my house. Since you've all now seen what I look like on a workday when I can't be bothered to put on real people clothes, I figure you're all dying to know what I look like on a normal day at the office. Ta da:

Blazer and Tshirt from H&M
Pants from J Crew
Shoes from Target
And no I'm not wearing socks, my ankles are actually that white
.....

If you're wondering what the heck is that thing in the bottom right hand corner of the above photo, the answer is obviously, a bust of William Shakespeare wearing my blue wig from Halloween. Duh.

Working from home is about 80% less stressful than being in the office sometimes. I get just as much done if not more, but it just feels easier to keep everything in perspective and remember what is really important in life. I think that right now, I need the occasional WFH day for my sanity, and because I have trouble keeping frustration and disbelief from showing in my facial expressions WFH days also keep my eyeballs from freezing permanently into this position:

This is the face I make after 1 hour calls with IT

And I know what time it is now

Hey, welcome to my first post in approximately forever.  A combination of trying to stay caught up in Asana Junkies and various book clubs, plus working one billion hours a week has kept me off the interwebs.  I also gracefully tripped over a box next to my desk this morning, so, aces all around.

Anyway, two weeks ago I turned 30! When I was in my early/mid twenties, getting older was terrifying.  I remember feeling OLD when I turned 24.  Like, really old.  I was convinced that I was past my prime or something. Fast forward six years and I could not care any less that I'm turning 30.  I'm pretty sure yoga is responsible.  For one thing, yoga has gently forced me to become more accepting of myself in general, but in addition, it's introduced me to amazing, beautiful women of all ages. Being 30 does not have to mean I am suddenly old, married and boring. I can and will have just as much going for me when I am 35, 40, 50 and beyond. Age truly is just a number.

I was lucky enough to spend my birthday weekend in Chicago with my sister, my husband and a handful of my dearest friends.  Kristin and Katie live there already, and RT and Linz flew in from Boston and the bay area, respectively. 

Ben and I took Friday off from work, and drove down to Chicago on Friday. Julianna met us at a coffee shop after she'd finished up for the day, I changed out of my road-trip clothes (aka yoga pants) and we headed to Wicker Park to meet up with Kristin, Amanda, RT and Katie at Violet Hour.  After hearing stories of horrendous lines, we opted for pre-dinner cocktails and arrived at 6pm sharp, with plans to get pizza and beer at nearby Piece afterwards.  Fortunately, we avoided a wait at VH!  Unfortunately, we took our time with drinks and by the time we got to Piece, they had a two hour wait.  Fortunately, the time at VH was well spent catching up over cocktails, and there's nothing like a speedily made burrito to solve all hunger problems. 

After our south-of-the-border adventure, we traveled back to Kristin's place with two bottles of wine and several cupcakes from Molly's Cupcakes.  After a few ridiculous Youtube videos, in-depth conversations about the state of our education system ensued and I was reminded of some of the many reasons why I love, love, love my friends.  (You can take the nerds out of the liberal arts college, but...etc)

Saturday was a day of many adventures. Julianna had discovered brunch spot Bakin and Eggs a few weeks prior, so we decided to all meet there at 10:30 for some delicious meat products. We were all pretty hungry already when we arrived, and Ben and I started drooling over the flight of bacon, which is exactly what it sounds like.  Unfortunately, just as we were about to place our order, our server informed us that they were having a "plumbing emergency" and everyone would have to leave. At first I thought this was some sort of cruel joke. It wasn't, but we did get free muffins.

We immediately began strategizing around where to go next. Amanda and Katie had driven, but Ben, RT, Julianna and I had all taken the bus, so in order to get to our next destination as a group we all had to pile into Katie's Toyota Echo. I'm fairly certain this is not legal.

At first it seemed like we would probably never eat again.  If you think this is overly dramatic, try driving around Chicago at 11am on an empty stomach after a night of drinking, no coffee in your system, and repeatedly being told you will have to wait 2+ hours for food.

But finally - M. Henry to the rescue!  M. Henry is one of my favorite brunch spots in all of Chicago, and miraculously there was *no wait.*  I have no idea how this worked out, but it was clearly meant to be.

After brunch, RT and I took the bus downtown to meet Linz at her hotel. Of course we got lost for about 15 minutes. But, we found our way there eventually and had a dramatic and tearful reunion. Back at Julianna's place, we did what any sane people would do - enact dramatic readings from Julianna's psych textbooks, the bible, Cosmo, and Maya Angelou, with Kenny G playing in the background.

We all met up again for dinner at Wakamono, a great sushi place that's close to both my sister's place and Kristin's in Lakeview.  While we were on our first round of drinks, someone - I can't remember who anymore - decided that my friends would all go around the table and name one thing they love about me. It made me cry!! Somehow it was determined that there would be three rounds of love, and I forced them to give the last one to me, so I could throw some love back at my friends.

After dinner we cabbed it over to Old Town, with high hopes for pop rock martinis at Suite Lounge...only to find that Suite Lounge was completely booked with private parties.  This marked the third and final time we tried to eat or drink somewhere and were unable to. 

At this point we were outside, and it was freezing cold so we snuck into a bank/ATM situation and hit up the Google to figure out where we could drink that was reasonably close by.  We found a place about a mile away that looked promising, and walked there (the longest mile EVER.  it was really, really cold) only to find that it was boring and full of douchebags.  Womp womp.

But it seemed like a total waste not to have a drink at the douchebag bar since we had walked across all of Siberia to get there, so we had a cocktail and discussed where to go next.

Luckily, Julianna remembered a dive bar near her place called Friar Tuck, which she described it as "the kind of place where you make your own fun." If you know me at all, you will know that this is my kind of place.  Off we went. What followed was a succession of jukebox magic, singing, and general shenanigans so wonderful that I will remember (most of) it for the rest of time. 

After Friar Tuck, we went next door for nachos because what else are you going to do at that point.  We finally had round 3 of the "I love you" game, which at that point was pretty much me yelling "I LOVE YOU YOU ARE AMAZING" at all of my friends, in a super tiny and sketchy mexican restaurant occuped by us and maybe two other people. It was...special. I had grand visions of yoga at 8:30 but by the time we got back to Julianna's place on Saturday night it was clear that was not going to happen.

The next morning we had brunch at Ann Sathers, and drove back to Minneapolis.    It was a total whirlwind weekend, but we all had a great time.  I am so blessed to have such amazing friends - especially friends who are willing to congregate for a random weekend in Chicago in the middle of winter.



Reunion at Violet Hour



Ordering fancy drinks

chandelier = classy

I always wanted to go snorkeling with a cupcake...now I know I should not do this

When given the option, sprinkles in your coffee is always a good idea

At Bakin and Eggs, hungry and hopeful

The flight of bacon, which sadly never arrived :(

Unaware of impending sewage doom at Bakin and Eggs

Katie's car = clown car



M. Henry to the rescue!





Linz arrives!




J and I, ready to hit the town




J and Amanda at Wakamono




Sushi!




Side-eye from RT



Bottles of wine as big as your leg at Wallgreens!

yep.

Found a friend for Trixie!

Peacing out from the douchebag bar

Bringing the classiness to Friar Tuck's

More classiness

Not quite as classy

This is probably when things started to go downhill

The whole bar sang happy birthday to me...which was embarassing...

Friar Tuck has a birthday tradition involving an inflatable sheep

posing with my sheep friend

nope...that's not how it works....



WHAT UP, BROS



Amanda and Katie

Adorable

Again with the classy

The end!!

Hope you are all doing well!  I really am trying to get back to more regular posting but work and other commitments are making it difficult...so we'll see what happens :)  It's my goal anyway.