Countdown: 12 days - N (and M)

I'm looking forward to NACHO Doritos, NOT sleeping in a sleeping bag in my own house, NONSENSE, staying up late at NIGHT talking, and NOT freezing every time I walk outside.

I'm thankful for NEW friends, NEW family, NEW experiences, NICE NEIGHBORS, NICE coworkers, NICE house and car, and the NEVER-ending love of God.

I'm looking forward to MOM time, MAGICAL potatotes (and everything else amazing MOM cooks), MADNESS, MY kids (yeah, you Thetas made it on the list again), MY epsilons, and the MAG crew.

I'm thankful for no MALL MADNESS during the holidays, MEETING new friends, MY own house, MY own car, and MEETING God every day.

I came back from Sapporo on Friday night. And Saturday I had to drive to town for our office year-end party. Wasn't quite what I thought the "office Christmas party" would be like. First, we started with bowling. Quite comical. I only beat all the women because I'm stronger than all of them. Then we went to some really fancy Japanese restaurant. I love Japanese food, but, boy, fancy Japanese food is a whole different story. I ate chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), which I generally love to eat, but it was shark fin collagen chawanmushi. I ate it, but I was a little hesitant at first. They told me it would be good for my skin. Then we went to some bar/club/lounge place. But after that, I went to the onsen (public bath) at the hotel. It was gorgeous. It was on the 13th floor so you could see the whole town. I went to the bath outside, which was probably a bad idea considering it was barely above freezing last night. But it was an experience. I slept in and went to McDonald's on my way to church this morning. Egg McMuffins and hash browns and coffee are so good.

While I was shopping around this afternoon, my boss emailed me asking if I wanted to come have dinner at his house this week. His wife is a really good cook, so I was totally down. I frantically tried to figure out what I could take to their house. Which is why I've spent the last 2 hours trying to bake 6 cookies at a time in my microwave oven. They don't taste too bad coming from a box mix. Trying to introduce snickerdoodles to the village. We'll see how it goes!