incredibly "lucky" girl.

I am one seriously, majorly lucky - shall we say blessed - girl. Let's start with last night...went to a surprise party for Samantha (the glue that holds my department together at work) at the Melting Pot. Now, if you have never been to the Melting Pot and did not grow up in the appropriate fondue eating era - this is a novel and pretty fun experience. It was definately my first time both visiting this eatery and eating fondue in general so I had a blast. It is incredibly expensive but I am sure you are paying for the experience/atmosphere as much as the fancy cheese, food -that you have to cook yourself, mind you - and chocolate. I'm a salty over sweet lover so the cheese was by far my favorite. Some of the other gals from the office met us there and as it turned out, one lady from work actually offered to buy all of our food/beverages. It was an amazing offer/expense for her to do that and a really sweet blessing for those of us sitting around her...she didn't have to do that but she could afford to and wanted to and it was a really nice surprise. So, I got to go out, have fun, try something new and was blessed in having someone else foot the bill. She's awesome...
Then, as the weather continued to worsen, I knew we all needed to be heading home. From what I heard, the roads got really, really bad last night. Snow turned to rain and then froze creating a skating rink on all the major highways...I took my time getting home (literally drove like 28mph on the interstate!) but made it home safely. Blessing #2 (or 4 billion and something but hey, who is counting?).
Since the weather got pretty nasty - and even though it was supposed to warm up nicely today (I think I saw something like 52 on the thermometer in the car) and all melt away - the schools were closed again today to keep buses and kiddos safe. What does that mean?? I got my second day off of work this week. Yes, oh yes, Blessing #3.
Oh wait...there's more! The road up to the forest where Chad works was completely frozen over. Like - hello, I used to be a gravel road and now I have 1 inch of ice over my top and you should have brought your zamboni to work today - frozen. So, he got to stay home today too (for his 2nd day this week - even though he pays for it in personal days - darn the State of Tennessee and their stupid weather policies). We did seperate stuff some (video games for him next door, cleaning up at the house for me) and then got to hang out most of the afternoon. Ran some errands this evening, did dinner with his parents, got Gwendolen and Wooby their Christmas presents (Wooby's includes a laser pointer...and she already loves it. I couldn't wait!), and now are home snug as the temperature drops again. I just made some biscotti to take to work tomorrow and it is cooling, preparing for the 2nd baking so I have some time to kill.

Note: I have about $3 left to spend on Chad's stocking gifts. Small suggestions *in size and price! Dani's suggestions were all good - probably use one of those - any others out there - for the man who has everything and yet a minimalist nothing all at once?