Merry (belated) Christmas, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of family and friends - I know I sure did!

Christmas Eve was just my parents and I but we had a good time prepping for the next day (Mom and I made pizzelles - recipe coming soon!) and watching some of the good ol' Christmas movies (Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story were of COURSE on the list...)

We had Christmas dinner at Larry and Holly's house - I had very high hopes this Christmas that I was going to make good use of my camera and take tons of pictures... I was off to a good start but then I got distracted by food! (For those of you who have never experienced a full-blown Italian Christmas, it starts with appetizers around noon and then you pretty much eat constantly until midnight...)

So here are a few photos and please forgive me for not having more!

That's all I've got! 

Sad, huh? :(  I don't know what happened!!  It was a complete blur of excitement!  (My few photos probably don't depict the excitement at all... there was somewhere around 25 of us for dinner!) Siiiigh...  All in all, though?  A WONDERFUL day! <3  

I just couldn't wait any longer!  

Rob's mom gave me a waffle iron for Christmas and the need for a late night snack was enough star-alignment for me to break it out!  I'd say the first batch was a huge success. :)

I didn't have any mix on hand so I just found a really basic recipe and it worked just beautifully!  Nothing like spontaneous waffles to cozy-up a chilly night!

Ok, so immediately after I put up my Christmas Tree (see Deck the Halls! Part 1), I realized that it was slightly out of place given that the entire rest of my apartment significantly lacked any holiday cheer.  I gathered the team (Rob, Krista, and Candy) and we headed out to pick up a little more flair!

There was a lot of wandering and picking up and putting back before we finally left (barely with our sanity...) with a random assortment of red, green, white, and gold.  I've slowly been adding little bit at a time so here's the grand reveal!

Most of the decorations were added to the hutch:

Oh my gosh!!  Which reminds me!  TIME OUT!

New furniture!  I sold the last set (table/chairs/buffet/china cabinet) on Craigslist (that in itself was an incredibly entertaining experience) and it has been replaced by my grandparents' table and hutch.  They look beautiful in my apartment and I love that I'm able to use them.

Ok - TIME IN!

Looking closer at the hutch set up, a little lighted garland with some red beads...

I put some red bells and wine corks in a vase I had laying around...

Some red and gold cranberry sprigs in a bud vase...

And this little guy is probably my favorite!  Rob's mom gave me this little tea light votive last year and I just love the way the light flickers though the trees and reflects the green mirrored lining!

I also added a few (I had no idea how huge they were when I bought them) stars in the corner by the dining table.

I'm not entirely sure that this particular arrangement or location is ideal but, to be honest?  They were getting glitter EVERYWHERE and I couldn't come up with something better in the 10 seconds necessary to prevent the herpes of the craft world from creating an epidemic on my poor apartment...

Anyways!  The last little bit is for the table...

I wanted to create some kind of centerpiece and this is what I came up with:

I originally started with the 3 candles but I wasn't sure about keeping them - this table is HUGE and they just looked awkward.... Lucky for me, Krista is a snowflake fanatic so we got together for a few movie dates and she crochet a few up for me with some pretty sparkly white yarn I had laying around.  Just perfect!

So there you have it!  Something about Christmas decorations just make everything seem cozier and I love it... :)

Believe it or not, I actually do find Organic Chemistry quite interesting.  And sure drawing the curly arrows to map out reaction mechanisms can be kind of rewarding.

However, tonight?  The night before the final exam?  I hate it.  I hate all of the memorizing that I don't feel capable of and all of the random specifics (that I surely won't think of until I sit down with the test in front of me) but that my lovely professor is sure to throw on there... Aren't these the sort of things you commit to memory when you've been doing them... you know... all day everyday?  Also known as, YOUR CAREER?!  What happened to the references and the cheat sheets?!  I miss you, engineering....

At least I've learned one thing for sure: