I started this a few days ago and just got around to finishing it. Oops. 😛

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I’m back at work this morning and I SO do not want to be here. Particularly since the pants I’m wearing right now do not fit properly due to all the holiday feasting I did during my vacation. Argh. So instead, I’m going to do some blogging. Hehe.

Here’s a few highlights from the past few weeks:
1. Spending LOTS of time with friends and family. Being in Southern CA for so long made me realize how much I miss it.

2. Doing lots of wedding “stuff.” Most notably cake tasting! YUM. Rob and I went to 3 different bakeries and had all kinds of cake (white, chocolate, carrot, marble, banana) along with all different kinds of fillings/icings (buttercream, cappuccino, mint chocolate, fresh strawberries…). Seriously, the best part of wedding planning so far. Just kidding. Sort of. Anyway, we decided on the design of our cake and selected our baker. YAY. Some pics of the yumminess…

The samples at Heidelberg Bakery. This is where we’re going to order our cake!

Rob sampling the banana nut cake (I think) at Torrance Bakery.

Mmmm.

3. Diesel playing with the other doggies in our family. He met my cousin’s dogs, Poker (also a shih tzu) and Roxy (a maltipoo), and he stayed at Rob’s parent’s house where he got to play with their dog, Oski (a pug). See the fun he had!

Diesel, Poker and Roxy (from left to right) on Christmas Eve opening up their presents. I take it back. Diesel probably didn’t enjoy playing with these two. Poker barked at him the whole night. Nicely, of course, but Diesel was still taken aback by him. And Roxy growled and lunged at him when we first got to my cousin’s house. She then proceeded to ignore him the rest of the night. I think that’s why Diesel is sitting so far away from them in this picture. Poor little guy.

Diesel and Oski. The Deez LOVES Oski. They play fight and have little tug of war games. I think he misses him. Aww.

4. Opening Presents! My friends and family were incredibly generous with the presents, as always. Some of the particularly noteworthy gifts I received:
— CTU t-shirt. HEE.
— Jack Bauer figurine. He currently resides on my desk at work ready to shoot anyone who approaches. 😀
— Brookstone ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. YAY. Now I can clean my engagement ring at home. I can’t wait to get it all sparkly.
— Cuttlebug. An awesome embossing and die-cut machine for scrapbooking!
— Casio Exilim EX-S770. This was a total surprise because I got it from a vendor at work. CRAZY! It’s only my second Christmas at my agency but I have quickly learned that the holidays are ridiculous. Really. We give so much business to various companies throughout the year that they practically throw presents our way at Christmas. We received an insane number of gift baskets, gift cards, boxes of chocolate, popcorn tins, etc. But the camera was the best of them all. Good stuff.
— canvas Marc Jacobs tote that I’ve been coveting
— DVDs (Veronica Mars s3, Brothers & Sisters s1)
— And tons of other good things — honestly, I feel so spoiled. The people in my life know me very, very well.

5. Eating my way through Cerritos. There’s just some things I can’t get here… like Filipino food (I *must* learn how to cook the dishes I love) and Chick-Fil-A (the BEST fast food EVER). The only thing I didn’t have was Pinkberry. I had a day planned out to go and everything but Rob and I got lazy. Next time for sure.

… And I guess that’s it. I already miss the holidays. :/ Since it looks like it’s going to be stormy all weekend, I better take down all the Christmas decorations and put away the luggage that’s still strewed all over the apartment…