#WeekendCoffeeShare was created by Part Time Monster. I’m so happy to participate again!  I made an extra pot and I hope you’ll join me.

Actually, I feel pretty rotten that I haven’t been able to make time to grab a cup with you and fill you in on everything that’s been going on!  December’s a rough time in the event/hotel/restaurant business and it took everything I had to get my work done and squeeze in vital moments with my family and close friends.

I had a lot of grandiose plans this year: ice-skating, holiday parties, a fabulous anniversary celebration with my husband and trips to Birmingham for Christmas and New Years to visit my family, as well as giving the loft a serious cleaning, signing up for some on-line classes and cleaning out my closets and make donations to Dress for Success and local clothing drives.

Would you like another cup?  I am so addicted to this Sumatran Roast. And how about a Christmas cookie?  Please, take two. These are my husband’s absolute favorites.

Typical for me, I had a lot more plans than I had actual time, but I am more than content with all the lovely things we did get to do and most importantly of all, the happy and relaxing six or seven (alas, non-contiguous) days we spent with my family in Birmingham.

One of the biggest highlights of our holiday was attending the Dahlonega Christmas parade, in the North Georgia mountains.  Our friends Sam and Betty participate in the parade every year with their four enormous Huskies pulling a dogsled filled with gifts.  It was our first time to see the event (although not our first visit to Dahlonega) and we enjoyed the simple charms of the small town: families and neighbors sharing holiday joy amid the festive lights and decor, the beautiful mountains and crisp wintry air.

My last day of work was the 21st, with two whole weeks off!  I’ve never in my life had a vacation that long and I was so incredibly thrilled to finally have some “me” time (and “we” time with my husband.)

David and celebrated our 3-year anniversary a day early (the 21st instead of the 22nd) at a friend’s holiday CD release party and performance with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.  The music was incredible, we had a nice dinner at the venue, Venkmans, but the best part was catching up with old buddies from my days in the Atlanta bar and music scene.

David’s Mom, Linda, came up on the 23rd from her home in Augusta, and spent the night so we could get an early start for our drive to Birmingham the next day.  It’s not a bad trip, about 2 and 1/2 hours, but the first part was through a torrential rainstorm.  Thankfully, it cleared up after about 50 miles and we had blue skies and an easy drive the rest of the way.

Being home in Birmingham was wonderful.  My 91-year old grandmother, Jessie, is visiting this month from Oklahoma, so we had the full family gathered at my parent’s home.  It was awesome playing Santa Claus, wrapping gifts and enjoying a delicious Christmas Eve dinner my husband cooked for us all.  Christmas day brought my sister, her husband and my niece over, along with my foster sister Wendy and her daughter Alexis.  We had another huge dinner, exchanged gifts, watched classic Christmas movies and just enjoyed being with each other.

We went back to Atlanta for a few days between Christmas and New Years and I actually did do a lot of cleaning and donated a bunch of clothes to a local charity.  I planned to do much more, but honestly, I was happy just to do a thorough mop and vacuum, dust everything and clean all the counters, the fridge and the bathrooms.  Oh, and I signed up for my on-line classes (more about that to come.)

New Year’s Eve brought us back to Birmingham to celebrate with the family. My Dad’s recovering from shoulder surgery so we needed to keep things a little chill for him.  We planned a big, swanky dinner at my folk’s house, with hors d’oeuvres, an Italian-themed dinner, champagne and sparklers for midnight!

Oops, I should have warned you that too much caffeine makes me wildly chatty.  I hope I haven’t “talked your ears off!”  Hmmmm. Maybe I should switch back to water.  🙂

It was a memorable, magical holiday – everything I hoped for – and I’m so grateful I got to experience and share it!

Your turn!  How were your holidays?  I truly hope you have lots of love and wonderful memories from your celebrations and I’d love to hear about them.

(Ok, just one more cup of coffee – let me top yours off, too – so I can toast to a happy New Year with you!)

Here’s to 2016 being filled with love, blessings, prosperity, happy surprises and being the best year yet for all of us!

I’d also like to thank Nerd in the Brain – I’ve enjoyed her “If We Were Having Coffee” posts so much, it inspired me to brew up a pot and join you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!