My holiday vacay is HERE. Hooray!!!!!

Now that I am totally chocolated out, maybe I can fit in some meaningful exercise during the coming week.

I got so much candy and chocolate little gifts at the office; I am a dark chocolate snob, so all the milk chocolate and white chocolate junk I will offer up to guests, but I don't expect many of them here. Another wasted office gift I got was a big tube of "body butter" with the usual assortment of unhealthy ingredients. I've also gotten particular about skin lotions and things that stay on my skin (as opposed to soap or shampoo, which is rinsed off). I mostly stick to Burt's Bees products now.

Hope to get together with 2 different friends, maybe take my mother to the movies and do my usual running around here and there, get my humidifier serviced, all before Christmas. Christmas eve day I figure I'll be cooking/baking.

I was able to wrap up my self-evaluation for my January performance review. Since I've only been perm since July, I won't be eligible for any raise, and I don't know if there will be any raises anyway, since I'm told there weren't for the past 2 years.

I'll also be wrapping up my own expense and income analysis for the 2014 year, one of the highlights of each December. I know I've spent way more than previous years since getting this job, but I can afford it and so it goes. Just yesterday I impulsively spent $60 on a pair of turquoise Foo dogs from "no refund" One Kings Lane. I like the variety of stuff they sell but feel uncomfortable with their no returns policy. Plus, their online descriptions are very brief. This will be my 2nd purchase from them so I'll see how it goes.

I plan to eventually redo my family room decor, and the new colors will be gray, turquoise, silver and white. The biggest expenses will be replacing the sofa (I bought a used sofa for $400 about 16 years ago) but I don't really want to do it now and risk the cats scratching the new one. Don't think I want to wait 10+ years before they pass on, so I don't know exactly what the timing will be. I also want to get rid of the stained and rather old wall to wall carpet in there too and either leave the floors bare wood (problem is the wood is painted and I don't know if lead paint was used or not, have to figure out when that addition was built) and either put an area rug down or new wall to wall in gray.