Friday Favorites | yankee swap, icy morning delays, quality time, and finishing books!

TGIF! I can't believe it's already Friday and that Christmas is literally next week. This week was a fun one. I guess my first favorite was that my husband had the week off. Even though I had to work, I made sure to wrap up my work days early so that we could go on a little date every night. It made me question why I don't do that more often. I work really late, oftentimes without even realizing it, so I only get to see my hubby for an hour or so he leaves for work (he works third shift, overnights). I want to start making more of an effort to leave work on time. If I don't finish everything on my to-do list, then oh well it can just wait until tomorrow. Anyway, that was a random tangent- let's get to the rest of my favorites from the week!

icy morning delay, work party, and yankee swap. This week we had our quarterly all-day staff meeting and decided to do a Christmas brunch and yankee swap exchange. We were supposed to start at 9:30, but early in the morning the public library that we rent out for our meetings had a 2 hour delay due to black ice/ driving conditions. That was a nice surprise! I got to enjoy the morning with my husband and dog on the couch while I did a couple of work-y things in front of the fireplace. For the brunch, everyone brought something in to munch on and we hung out for the first part of the day. I was lazy and brought a store-bought veggie platter thinking it wouldn't get touched because of all the other goodies offered, but to my surprise it was gone super quickly. I guess a lot of us are trying to be healthy lol. Next time I'll bring the bigger tray. For my Yankee swap, I bought a fun travel-themed hot sauce kit that I found at Christmas Tree Shop. It was the most popular gift and people kept stealing it from each other! I was really happy that everyone liked it. Then when it came to my turn, I picked a bottle of wine with 2 two beautiful etched wine glasses. I decided to swap since I'm not a huge drinker and also because I had my eye on my boss's choice, which was a little handheld mixer. I thought that was the neatest thing to get! I love my Kitchen Aid, but sometimes it is so much more convenient to just use a hand mixer. I was really happy with my choice. And I was relieved no-one stole it from me.

hot sauce (found it on Wal-mart's site!)

mixer

opening my yankee swap gift- a bottle of sauvignon blanc and 2 wine glasses.

Disney on ice. Guys, I'm so excited. As their Christmas present, I am taking my 3-year-old godson and his sister to Disney on Ice the Saturday after Christmas. I haven't been to Disney on Ice since I was a little girl, and it's my godson's first time going ever. I can't wait to see it through his eyes. I'll have to remember to take some photos. We bought the tickets this week and I'm counting down the days. I hope its a special experience for my little nugget!

tinted bedroom windows. I've mentioned a million times that my husband works third shift. He has a very difficult time sleeping during the day because of the light that streams in through the windows. Even black out curtains and blinds aren't enough to dim the light from outdoors. Well, leave it to my hubby to figure something out. This week, Val found a removable black window film and essentially tinted our windows. I don't necessarily consider tinted windows a favorite of the week since I personally love bright spaces, but the decrease in complaining on my husband's part definitely is a favorite lol. It truly makes a huge difference in blacking out the light. I personally love a bright bedroom but never really get to enjoy it since we work such opposite shifts, so I try to get my bright room fix in the living area and my office instead. That way, we're both happy.

reading a ton and doing my 2019 book survey. The epic reading slump of 2019 is over just in time for the holidays! I have been reading SO much and actually exceeded my Goodreads goal for the year! I've read some amazing books and I can't wait to share them for the Show Us Your Books link-up next month. I have also been working on filling our Jamie's year-end book survey and that has been a ton of fun! I love when surveys and tags really make you think about what you have read in different ways. I can't wait to polish the post off and share it- probably in the beginning of January.

quality time with my hubby. I already said this, but my husband Val and I got to spend so much quality time together at night this week because he was on vacation. We did A LOT. We saw Jumanji in theaters (and had the entire theater to ourselves since it was a random Monday night!). We laughed so hard throughout that entire movie. Its one of those so-stupid-its-hilarious movies.

On Thursday I took some personal time after my doctor appointment and we headed to tour one of the Newport mansions for the afternoon. We went to the Breakers, where the Vanderbilts spent their summers (you can read more about the history of the Vanderbilts and the mansion here or here, if you're interested). It has been preserved beautifully and the mansion is all decked for Christmas. Despite the 12° weather, it was a fun, cozy day date.