Wednesday morning I woke up and got straight to work.  I spent the first three days of my holiday break running all around Charlotte, sitting in traffic, and making countless grocery runs in preparation for the house load of guests descending on us for the holidays.  I absolutely love entertaining and having house guests, but have also unfortunately inherited the Martha Stewart gene from my mother – everything must be perfect.  I spent weeks planning recipes, making shopping lists, etc. – everyone kept accusing me of stressing out about the holidays and visitors, but I honestly enjoy all the prep work and planning. 

But with working at Blynk and running errands everywhere, cleaning the house and getting it ready kept getting pushed to the end of the list.  Finally Wednesday morning I was cleared of all other tasks, and bounced out of bed to get on a cleaning mission.  I did a short run outside with the dogs (to wear them out before our other doggie visitors arrived), and then went a bit further myself on the new treadmill…

And then I got to the cleaning!  We did most of our holiday decorating a few weeks ago, but I neglected to share it with you all on the blog.  So here we go!  One of the main things i had wanted to get done before people came over was to clean up the outside of our house.  We had wet leaves and debris everywhere that hadn’t been dealt with and I had waited so long that it had all gotten disgusting and wet and muddy.  I tried to rake it up on Monday night in the dark and finally gave up since it was so cold, although I was still sad about it.  Tuesday night I got home super late from running errands and working all day, and came home to find a sparkling clean porch and yard, and adorable Christmas lights hanging in the screen porch!  Best husband EVER!!

Inside, the surprises continued.  Casey had finally hung the two pictures and our photo/message board that I’ve been wanting to get up on the wall since we moved in! 

I love these framed pictures.  If you didn’t know it, you’d probably just think they were pretty photography shots, but they are actually photos from OUR WEDDING!  My insanely beautiful flowers in mason jars (before the ceremony), and our awesome cake table at the reception!

And of course the kitchen message board with our all holiday photo cards!  I love seeing all our friends and family (and their adorable smiling babies!) every day when I’m in the kitchen.  Check out the puppy pics on the bottom left – that’s Indy and Huey!  Can you believe it??

I had so much fun decorating our new house for the holidays this year.  I turned our candle hurricanes into ornament holders on the dining room table, and I LOVE the way the final product turned out. 

And the living room with our beautiful CHRISTMAS TREE!

I love decorating our tree and pulling out the ornaments every year.  We have new ornaments we’ve gotten together, as well as old ornaments from when we were young.  Here is the ornament Casey gave me last year for Christmas – with a framed cutout of the silhouette we used for our wedding stationary.  Any my Denison ornament that Lindsey gave me – so many great memories!

This guy on the left was my favorite ornament when I was little – a mouse hanging from a pencil sharpener!  I mean seriously – why?  And the Topsail turtle that reminds me of the best summer ever of living at the beach – the last summer before we grew up.  :)

Here’s another childhood favorite – my wooden ballerina.  Check her out from behind – Emily 1984 – so old!  And so special…

Besides the tree, we had some Christmas cheer climbing the staircase, and a few holiday surprises waiting in the guest bathroom.

Both guest bedrooms were clean and ready for guests!  Indy made sure the bed was comfortable for them…

We got this beautiful crystal monogrammed bowl as a wedding present from my Springer coworkers (miss you guys!!), and I filled it with the remaining gold ornaments for the coffee table.  A few other holiday trinkets were placed too…

The house was filled with the smell of baking cookies, and the sound of Sarah McLaughlan’s Wintersong – all we needed was the guests to arrive!  

And finally – after pacing in front of the door for a few hours – my mom and Sarah were IN CHARLOTTE!  Sarah helped us move here in August, but had never seen the house settled, and my mom had never been here yet!

And look who came along for the ride…  My mom’s precious little corgi – Bosley!

He did his best to hang with the big dogs, but after a few hours of racing around the yard and playing, he ended up like this…

We had a great night of catching up, delicious Ethiopian food (YUM!), and family fun.  Christmas Eve was spent doing more of the same.  I gave my family a nice tour of Charlotte complete with a stop at Johnson & Wales…

…and a trip to Southpark to eat at Blynk!  When we got home, I felt lazy and like I needed to do some moving, so Sarah and Casey and I bundled up and took the trio for a 3 mile walk through the neighborhood.

Christmas Eve night had some crazy drama (involving the fireplace) that will be saved for a blog post all of its own, but we also had some fun playing with the time on the the camera, and taking cheesy posed family photos.

Even though I’m a day behind, tales of Christmas day will have to wait until tomorrow.  For now, I’m off to watch Love Actually with the Holcombes and the Malones on this wonderful Christmas night.

Merry Christmas!

I’ve mentioned work several times on the blog, and I’ve gotten numerous emails and phone calls from friends and family, as well as blog comments, asking the obvious – “when did you get a job?  where do you work?”!

So here is the long awaited (and long-winded) answer!  At the beginning of October, I decided I had settled into my first month of school, and it was time to start earning a paycheck again.  Since I had sort of flipped my life around, I also needed to start getting some job experience in my new field.  I sat around one Friday afternoon googling “healthy food” and “vegetarian restaurants” in Charlotte, hoping to find a place that would allow me to gain food industry experience, as well as meet my personal interests.  I ended up sending out cold-call-type emails to five or so different places telling them my culinary story and asking if they needed help – a total shot in the dark.

Later that very same night my phone rang, and within a week I was starting at Blynk Organics!  Which just goes to show that you have nothing to lose by just being willing to ASK for things!  I knew Blynk was a match for me the minute I went to the website.  A place after my own heart that listed nutrition facts and calorie counts – all I ever want in life!   I was initially drawn to working there because the food sounded delicious, and I loved that they were focused on providing quick, but more importantly – healthy – options to people. 

In the last three months of working, I’ve gotten to know pretty much all there is to know about working there – I feel like a seasoned veteran by now!  There’s a fabulous group of people to work with too – all people interested in being healthy and active and motivated.  It makes it easy for me to go to work when I know I get to go work with people I consider friends, especially being new to Charlotte!

So on that note, I present to you – Blynk Organics!  In photos…

The main Blynk location, and the one that I primarily work at is in Uptown Charlotte – meaning we serve busy professional types who hurry around during their work day.  A second location just opened in the Southpark Mall last week, but I will only be working there on Saturdays (ugh).  Anyways, since lunch is the main attraction at Blynk, a lot of people don’t even realize we have a delicious breakfast spread too.  On the left you see all the yogurt parfait fixings, and assorted oatmeal toppings.  We also have fresh baked pastries and breakfast sandwiches – all organic of course.  And yes, that’s right, I said OATMEAL…

Starbucks has nothing on this stuff.  It’s made fresh every day, and slightly sweetened with cinnamon – sooooo delicious!

We get our lunch delivery around 11am every day, and then we pack up breakfast and bust out the lunch spread.  Starting with my personal favorite – the salad bar!

Truly the best salad bar I’ve ever seen – toppings include things like marinated mushrooms, grilled eggplant, glazed edamame, teriyaki tofu, and more.  I make myself a salad during almost every shift!

We also do a huge spread of sandwiches – all made from scratch by our Chef, and all breads and meats are from local North Carolina companies – very cool!  There’s a good selection of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options, which can be very hard to find elsewhere. 

Since the Uptown location is in an office building, we have a nice little area of tables for people to use, to get away from their offices and enjoy their lunch.  We even spruced the tables up with a little holiday cheer!

Here are some shots of the main scene, where the magic happens.  I love how sleek and clean it all is – very high tech!

We also have a rotating selection of three hot soups each day, and if you know me you know that I LOVE SOUP!  Let’s just say I do a lot of soup sampling!  If the salad, soup, or sandwiches aren’t enough for you, there’s always the house-made Blynk Organic cookies – mmmmm. 

I feel really lucky to have found a place that I really enjoy working, as well as a place that so perfectly fits in with my personal feelings on food.

And obviously they have VERY dedicated employees…

:)   I am tired from a long day of working all day, followed by last minute Christmas errands, and a 90 minute HOT yoga class!

Night, all!