Tuesday Tidbits January 2016

It's another belated Tuesday Tidbits post! I'm really good at procrastinating sometimes.

It was a whirlwind of excitment and busy-ness around Christmastime. I was so swamped with reviews right before Christmas that I was wrapping gifts til late in the night on Christmas Eve. My family is HUGE on my mother's side so we do a white elephant gift exchange type of thing with numbers. Now that we're all grown, it makes more sense. While my mom has six brothers and sisters, none of my cousins are quite so prolific. Out of all of us cousins (I think there's 18 of us), only one has kids yet (and we're all well into our 20's or *cough* 30's).

In other words, it's a giant party. The kind where the house is always too small, everyone is talking at the top of their lungs, there's wrapping paper everywhere and all the tables are overloaded with food you can't stop eating. Apparently, you can't be Greek without too much food and talking way too loud. Or maybe that's just my family and our own type of crazy...

After that, on Christmas Day we had a very sedate, calm, calorie-conscious afternoon with my husband's family. The difference is quite jarring, at least for me. For my husband, he always thinks he comes away from my family gatherings with fewer brain cells than he went in with. :D I always have a blast because I'm really good at eating and talking.

I went hiking last Sunday with my dad and sister. I haven't done it in awhile and it was snowing while we climbed to Rattlesnake Ledge but the view at the top was worth it. I need to go with them more often.

If you're anything like me, you rarely enter giveaways because the opportunity for spam isn't worth the slim chance of winning. But I caved over the holidays and entered a bunch of giveaways from The Zoe Report.
I got an email a few days ago telling me I won one of their giveaways! I was so shocked! I know there are lots of people who enter giveaways by the dozens every day but I usually don't so I was really surprised.
Not only that, it was a Grand Prize! A shopping spree at SamEdelman.com for $1500!! That's a ridiculous amount of money to spend on shoes when you're as practical as I try to be. All my friends have been choosing their shoes and my mom picked a handbag but it's still a lot! If it was Jimmy Choo, though, I freely and selfishly admit I wouldn't be sharing. ;)

What else?

Oh, we are heading to Ireland! We are staying in Dublin and the one thing I want to do before anything else is see the Cliffs of Insanity! Err... I mean, the Cliffs of Moher. I love the Princess Bride so that will be fun. If you've been there and know any places that I should hit up, tell me. We are going to Edinburgh in Scotland for a day (or maybe two), as well. I can't wait! It's coming up quick.

What has your 2016 been like so far? I don't really make resolutions (why set myself up for failure, amirite?!) but I always hope to have a year better than the last! Since Ireland is on the calendar, I think that's already happening. :)