Yet another month has gone by since we last chatted! The goal is to have a new post up every Tuesday (and to use the super awesome hashtag #tuesdaytoast), but we will see how that goes.

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays! I somehow made it through without any major bumps or bruises. (more on that later)

This is another installment of “gold stars + demerits” a la Gretchen Reuben. Check out the first post if you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Gold Stars

– Had a Gilmore Girls Revival Party.

Oh em gee do I have thoughts on the revival! I’ve already drafted about 3 posts to talk about the Gilmore Girls, but have yet to come up with something entertaining or insightful enough. I mean the revival has been out a month and there were already a zillion think pieces on it by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

This is my friend Ashley (Shlee) who really got me into Gilmore Girls (and bought every. single. season for me!)

We did end up having a lot of fun. Tons of poptarts and pizza were eaten. Dave even surprised me with a giant coffee mug he had purchased just for the event.

I’m so happy people were able to come over and hang out…some of them for a whole 8 hours since the revival was a total of 6 hours and we took quite a few breaks. Also we played Gilmore Girls Bingo. You can check out the Gilmore Girls Bingo that I made myself here to play on your desktop or phone.

That ending tho. Like seriously…we need to talk about that.

– Cut my own hair.

It’s a little hard to tell, but it was at least 4 inches. If anyone is interested…I might do a post about this. It turned out really well, but it did take me a full 1.5 hours. I’m no expert!

– Finished semester number 1 (out of 6) in my teaching program.

I survived, guys. I made it through the first semester after a 3 year hiatus from school. I received two A’s and two B’s. And one of the B’s was in a class that many students had to retake, so you can imagine my relief! I even made a couple of friends and will know a couple of people in my classes next semester.

– Read a book.

Lauren Graham’s new book to be exact. I would say the book is for fans of Gilmore Girls and of Lauren Graham, but it was also a little motivating to hear all of the stuff she went through to get to where she is today.

– Said, “yes!” to lots of social things.

I know this is a normal thing for most humans, but I always feel like I have other things to do besides be social. (see my demerit below on why this may be) I also have a touch of social anxiety (and anxiety in general) that sometimes makes me want to stay holed up in my house. I’ve really been working on saying yes to invitations this past month and I think it really helps me feel better and more confident as a whole.

Of course there is a balance to this and I did decline the third social event in one day as I had gotten up at 3:15am that morning for work…but I think I did pretty well considering.

– Made it through the holidays virtually unscathed!

How, you ask? Let me tell you…

5 ways to survive the holidays:

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1. I’ve found that the secret may be a small dose of holiday cheer (aka alcohol). The thing about this is that alcoholism runs in my family, so we never really have it at the holidays. This also makes me deathly afraid of becoming an alcoholic myself, but I mean…that Bailey’s in my coffee sure did keep me extra cheerful.

2. I also baked only 1 thing for Christmas Eve and 1 thing for Christmas Day and I used (gasp) Betty Crocker mixes. It saved so much hassle and I was still able to make some homemade frosting and decorate a little. I also was strategic and baked them at the first Christmas Eve shindig (at Dave’s parent’s house). Seriously, I felt so much less stressed and I might do this every year from now on.

3. I used gift bags instead of wrapping paper. I know those things are more expensive, but they look cute and I save as many as I can to use for the next year. And they are so much easier in my opinion!

4. Along those lines…I kept the holiday decor pretty simple. Like Charlie Brown Christmas simple. Especially since we have a little kitten who keeps getting into the tree.

5. We did a “secret santa” this year between (most of) the siblings and significant others. Shopping for presents is not my strong suite and it was nice to be able to focus on less people and get decent gifts (instead of scrambling to buy things for allthepeople). It worked out pretty well although we have some kinks to work out for next year. I about died laughing when I opened my gift and there was a thank you note addressed to the person who had bought it on Etsy. And then someone else had left the Amazon gift receipt on the box ha!

Demerit

So I’m not sure if this counts because it’s kind of a personality thing (although I hate using that as an excuse), but my perfectionism really gets in the way of my life and happiness.

For example: this blog. I have the hardest time writing a post because I feel like it has to be a revolutionary topic or hilarious or have gorgeous photos or be super relevant. It has to be perfect.

I’m working on writing a little bit every day so that maybe I will get more used to it, but it’s sad when you can’t do what you love because you can’t stand to produce something less than perfect.

The same issue trickles into pretty much every other aspect of my life. Poor Dave takes the brunt of the stressed Amanda when it comes to keeping a clean and tidy home. (<-which of course it never is perfectly clean and tidy and therefore I’m endlessly feeling like a failure)

Heaven forbid we plan on people coming over…I inevitably have a meltdown. Definitely something I need to work on!

In other news…

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays! We have a couple more shindigs before the end of the year and then I’m anxious to get back into a more normal routine. Okay I’m pretty excited to have a couple more weeks with no homework, but I have lots on the to do list! Including working on the wedding stuff. Wish me luck!