The Roundup: Brain Dump
Who else has been feeling massively overwhelmed since the moment Thanksgiving ended? Isn't it crazy that nowadays people will actually line up right after their delicious turkey dinner to go Black "Friday" shopping? Quotes around Friday because it's hardly Black Friday when you start shopping on Thursday night! I'm happy to report that I didn't make it out to the mall until Saturday morning. In the meantime, my mom and I were getting some serious Christmas decorating and card-writing done! Our secret? This massively helpful brain dump technique!
Priority #1 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was to get all of our Christmas decorations up after work! I started my day with some Chobani + grapefruit. The chai latte was a lovely surprise from one of the nurses that I work with - she knows me so well! My mom and I managed to get all of the first and second floor decorations in about two hours. Putting our ornaments on the tree is always takes up the most time. We spent Thanksgiving with one of my mom's fiancee's friend's family. We recharged on Friday night after work and then hit the mall early Saturday morning! Two things that have been sitting on my to-do list for weeks: (1) get an oil change and (2) replace the battery in my watch. We managed to get both of those things done before heading out on our shopping excursion. I'll be posting a more comprehensive gift guide next week, but I must say we found some great gifts and they were a real steal. Between our shopping trip on Saturday and Cyber Monday, our Christmas shopping is completely done! Tree up, cards written, and I even managed to find gifts for two of my best friends from college whose birthdays happen to be at the end of December!
To top off a full day of shopping, I treated my mom to Cava - it's an amazing Mediterranean grill. The way that they serve food is very similar to Chipotle. I got a saffron basmati rice bowl with hummus, tzatziki, crazy feta, grilled chicken, shredded romaine, kalamata olives, tomatoes & cucumber, and harissa dressing. It was insanely good. I highly recommend it if there is one in your area!
Holiday festivities continue this week! Tomorrow I'll finally get a chance to sneak away to watch the latest Mockingjay movie. There is a cinema near my house that does $5 movie nights on Wednesdays and it's fantastic! You can watch any of their newest features for half the price that you'd pay anywhere else. This Saturday morning I'll be in Old Town Alexandria for the Annual Scottish Parade! In the meantime, I've started another 10-day green smoothie cleanse in preparation for holiday gluttony :) So tell me - what's on your brain dump list for this week?
