'Tis the Season........

....for Holiday gatherings and festivities! Hence the lack of blogging!! This past week was a busy but fun one. Tuesday evening after work we went to The Wine Loft to celebrate our friend Stacy's birthday and support our friend Kajal's volunteer group, Hands on Birmingham. I would post pictures but my hair was out of control because it was pouring down rain. It's bad enough I've been tagged on facebook!

Friday night we had 2 holiday parties to attend, but alas could only make it to one (the one we missed was my work party, I thought we might be able to swing by later, but apparently my colleagues like to finish things up by 9-9:30). Tom usually has a Pathology Christmas party sponsored by UAB but due to the economy (I think??) they didn't have it this year. *sad* So instead a couple of Tom's friends in the program decided to put together their own little holiday party. It was at a ballroom in the condo complex of one of the girls and had an amazing view overlooking Birmingham!

Saturday was spent relaxing, wrapping Christmas presents, putting together Christmas packages (since we won't be able to go home this year), and listening to some of my favorite Christmas albums (ummm, NSYNC and Mariah Carey, omg I'm so embarrased I just wrote that). *Freed - notice the picture of Oscar!! He just happened to be right above the gifts*

Saturday night we went over to another friend's house to celebrate since our friend Doug is graduating and officially has his PhD! (Someday it will be Tom!!) We enjoyed some kick-ass chicken noodle soup and got to hang out with Jack, my new favorite puppy :)

Sunday was spent with Tom in lab most of the day and me running errands. We managed to break away for a couple hours to go to this art show I had heard about, The Blue Light Art Show. Boy was that a waste of time! It wasn't too bad, but it was in the middle of nowhere and the area around it smelled like sewer. At least our $2 admission fee went to a good cause! AND we just happened to get off the exit where the new Bass Pro Shop opened up. I secretly have been wanting to go in and see what all the fuss was about, even though I don't hunt, fish, or even camp for that matter. So we went in. Holy cow. The place was HUGE! It had stuffed animals of every variety (bears, elk, deer, wild hogs, wolves). AND it had a giant fish tank with a waterfull in the middle. The clientele was interesting as well. My curiousity was satisfied, and I have no desire to go back ;)

Sunday night we went over to our friends Matt & Kendal's house for a potluck Holiday dinner. Yum! The food was amazing, as always with our group :) We also had a Dirty Santa gift exchange, and there were some, um, interesting gifts exchanged (okay, only one really interesting gift...compliments of Kendal).

All in all it was a good weekend! I'm going to try to get some sleep and reserve some energy for the upcoming week!!