Merry Christmas friends! Today is the 25th Day of Joy. I feel so happy to spend this special day with my boyfriend JZ and his family. We've been together for a few years and it's really nice to finally enjoy the holidays together. Simply a great joy for us both. There is so much to … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 25

Christmas Eve! The 24th Day of my challenge. I made it down to Cape May, NJ to spend the holiday with JZ's folks. I had excellent luck from catching a subway right away to not hitting any traffic. It was an easy, but long trip. When I finally arrived it was time for Rock and … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 24

Christmas Eve's Eve and I have spent the entire day working away on wrapping and crafting Christmas presents. I've made a lot of good stuff! Homemade spiced nuts, spice blends, lotions, candies, satchels, bookmarks and shaving cream, everyone in my family is going to get some homemade love. I was really excited to make as … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 23

I woke up this morning and spent the day getting ready for a visit from a few folks. My very good friends Carolyn and Katelyn, along with Katelyn's fiance Nick came for dinner, drinks and fun. I made beef and three bean chili, guacamole and I got a loaf of rosemary olive bread. We enjoyed … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 22

Things I am grateful for this holiday season: Sparkling Wine Velvet ribbon Free shipping Food blogs Friendships Chinese takeout Without all these things, it would be really difficult to accomplish everything I have. I'm so grateful to live in these modern times of convenience. It all boils down to making it easier to give and … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 21

Today I had brunch with two of my closest friends. I'm very fortunate to have these really wonderful gals  Jess and Carolyn in my life. My friend Jess is getting married in a few months, so our brunch focused on helping her finalize some details and catching up. Our meet-up was really quite exciting because I get to see … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 20

TGIF! Especially because it starts my two week winter break! I'm so happy to have some time off to relax and see friends and family. Tonight was an evening of creating gifts for friends and family. I worked on a single craft project to create really beautiful items for a few people in my life. I'm … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 19

My renewed sense of happiness and joy yesterday flourished today! Dressed in a TMNT sweatshirt from JZ, I was in for a fun day! Today I continued my fun and joy. Excited for the annual Secret Snowflake gift exchange we do at work, I packed my backpack with a gift for my snowflake. As we … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 18

Today I feel accomplished. I have been productive and happy all day. At the same time, I feel really gracious and lucky. Between work, Christmas shopping and my workout, I got things done and off my to do list. I'm gearing up for winter break and excited to make good use of my time off. Between … Continue reading 25 Days of Joy Challenge: Day 17