Life With Briana: January 2019

January 24, 2019

The Marvelous Ms. Mei Mei

Ok - with this post, I think I am officially caught up with blogging (for now). Woo Hoo!

In honor of Mei Mei's 4 year gotcha day anniversary today, I think she deserves her very own post!!

I am not sure why, but I have been taking so many pictures of my sweet Mei Mei lately. I guess it's because she is just up in my business all the time and she is ridiculously cute too...

When we first brought Mei home, I bought a bunch of "Angry Bird" stuffed toys for her to play with. She is obsessed with them. When she is lonely or upset or just wants to play, they are her comfort and joy...

When we go away for a few hours, this is often the sight we see when we get home. Her angry birds (we call them her "babies") are grouped together in different places in the house...

Mei is a big comfort and companion to me when I am not feeling well...

She's extremely helpful around the house...

She loves to sleep...

She loves relaxing by the fireplace...

My nephews picked out this toy for her for Christmas and she loves it...

She steals blankets she is not supposed to sleep on...

We have a nice-sized house, but she prefers being in the room with us and laying on someone at all times...

We wanted to show her off a little, so a few months ago, we submitted her picture for the neighborhood pets section of our neighborhood newsletter...

Isn't she the perfect furry centerfold?

People often think cats are aloof, but I can tell you that Mei Mei is the complete opposite. She is total cuddle monster. When we lost Asia in Feb of 2014 (who still has a huge piece of my heart), I wasn't sure we could find another cat who could fill that empty void in our lives. I couldn't have asked for a better cat to heal our broken hearts.

January 23, 2019

The New Year So Far

Well, I had hoped I would start off the new year feeling awesome, but unfortunately, I didn't feel to great the first few days of the new year. I think everything caught up to me and I was just feeling off.

Doug and I did watch the new Dr. Who on New Year's Day...

Though I wasn't feeling the best, I had my house all cleaned up a couple of days into the new year. I needed to feel normal again...

Briana had to return to school on Jan 3, so we ate some Chinese food the night before to say farewell to Christmas break.

We had taken two weeks off from visiting our furry friends, so we started that back up too...

January 3rd arrived and Bri finally had to head back to school and back to her routine...

Speaking of my kid and school, I had it all wrong when I spoke about the geography bee in my Briana update post. My quite unobservant daughter (who I love dearly of course) didn't realize that winning the bee in her class meant going to the school competition. Bri got second place in her class. If she had won, she would have moved on to the next level. So it was a much bigger deal than she (or I) thought. Her getting second place in her class is even more of a bummer now! Oh well - sigh. Her very good friend Jackson got first place in his class and got second place at the school level. B was very happy for him!

One thing that is amazing to me sometimes is just how grown up Bri is getting. She called her friend from the car the other day to help him with some homework. Just watching her laugh and chat with him on the phone made me really realize she is almost a teenager...

The new year so far has already brought us Doug's birthday. His birthday landed on a Sunday this year, so that meant he got a whole birthday weekend to celebrate! LOL!

The night before his birthday, we had a great evening (including dinner) with friends Ansu, Khalid and Kira to celebrate.

It had been quite a while since Bri and Kira had seen each other. They were so happy to spend some time together again...

Khalid and Kira had to try out Bri's new chair...

The birthday boy! (On his actual birthday)...

Bri's gift to her dad...

My two loves (at Doug's birthday dinner at Aspen's Steakhouse)...

My parents celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary on the 17th. Next year is the big 50!!!

And we already got a big house project done in 2019. You may remember we have always had white wood balusters on our staircase...

Well, we replaced them with beautiful iron ones...

It is something that Doug has always wanted to do to the house. It only took us 15 years to get it done! LOL!

Well, I have one more post set to go after this and then I am officially caught up with my blogging. I can't even believe it. I notice that I go on these "blogging binges" once in a while. I blog a whole bunch and then I find that I don't want to blog again for a while. I guess I had time to finally blog and I was also in the mood, so I just went for it.

Catching up with my blogging was a resolution of mine, and I got it done! Woo Hoo! I also said I as going to start doing a bit more for myself. Well, I made a hair appointment for February - does that count? I say it does. I also made a lunch date with a friend (which is happening today), so I think I am on a roll. I just need to get on my dang treadmill. I'm totally going to it - very soon.

Hope you all enjoyed my catch up. Be back soon!

January 22, 2019

The Calm After The Storm

The "storm" being the business of the Christmas season.

I often breathe a sigh of relief when it's all over. It's a relief when you've gotten everything done and everyone is happy.

The week after Christmas is a bit calmer. There is a lot of clean up that needs to be done, but it's still calmer.

We had hope to see my aunt, uncle and cousin and her kids right after Christmas, but the flu bug swept through their house and it didn't happen. :(

It's become a tradition for Doug and Bri to have a daddy/daughter evening at a hotel in Atlanta right after Christmas. They eat a fancy dinner and rent movies all evening and just chill out.

This year, they went to the Ritz...

And ate at the AG Restaurant...

Another fun thing Bri and I did right after Christmas was meet up with friends Amy and Mary for a movie (Mary Poppins Returns) and some Mexican food...

Doug and Bri also had a Starbucks morning one morning during her break. Bri loves to read, draw and drink hot chocolate at Starbucks...

I spent a lot of time putting gifts and decorations away that week.

On NYE morning, I was watching GMA on TV and saw a sign with Chongqing, China on it. Bri was born in Chongqing, so it was really cool to see it on there...

Of course it's not NYE without watching the ball drop on TV...

The week after Christmas is a bit more calm, but it's also a bit confusing. It's the week that you find you aren't quite sure what day it is. You are still dealing with your Christmas hangover and you are probably binge watching too much Netflix. I know I did. :-)

January 21, 2019

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Wes and Ann were able to spend Christmas Eve morning with us before they headed out for their next destination.

We had a lot of fun opening gifts...

It was really hard to say goodbye. Hate that they live so far away...

That afternoon, Doug and I watched "Scrooge" together which is a tradition for us...

Unfortunately, I was so tired after weeks of go-go-go, I kept falling asleep during it. (I'm totally getting old - LOL!)

We had our traditional low key dinner - Honeybaked ham, potato salad and baked beans...

There was no milk and cookies for Santa this year, but I still pulled out my plates. I just had to...

We got everything set out and ready for Christmas morning...

Bri has never been the type of kid to get up early and run in my room begging to open gifts. We always have to drag her out of bed. My girl loves her sleep. LOL!

She was a bit tired opening gifts, but she was really happy with her goodies...