For the first time ever, I did not spend my Christmas holiday at home (in Atlanta) with family.  Instead, Vishnu and I stayed in Miami last week.  It was our very own holiday staycation.  And as strange as it was not to be with our parents and siblings, we really did enjoy the alone time.  The end of 2013 was very go go go, so it was nice to relax and stay put for once.

Here’s how our time went down…

1. As y’all know, I was a little sick last week.  This part kind of sucked.  In fact, I’m still getting over whatever it was that I caught.

2. Since we weren’t going home and didn’t have any major plans, I worked Monday, Thursday, and Friday.  While it doesn’t sound like fun to be working while everyone and their moms are on vacation, I actually got a good amount of stuff done.  I guess that’s what happens when no one is around.

3. We had a very special guest stay with us all of last week…Mr. Guinny!  Robin and Andy went home for Christmas and asked if we wanted to dog sit.  Did we ever!  And we were beyond excited to do so!

Guinness is pretty much the most well behaved dog ever, and he understands EVERYTHING.  We played, we cuddled, we went for walks.  It was a blast!  In fact, while we were going to bed one night, I asked Vishnu if Robin and Andy would miss him too much if we decided to just…I dunno…keep him.  Creepy?  A little but I FREAKIN LOVE HIM!

4. So my car was disturbingly dirty.  Like I was embarrassed to claim it dirty.  I dragged Vishnu along with me to get it washed earlier in the week, and what was an annoying errand turned into a date thanks to the organic cafe attached to the car wash place.  This place served fancy food and wine.  I would honestly eat there even if I wasn’t getting my car washed.  A little strange but very delicious!

5. Days off always equal movie time in my mind.  We watched The Next Three Days and Love Actually.  The Next Three Days has nothing to do with the holidays…absolutely nothing.  It’s a suspense type movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.  I highly recommend it.  And of course, Love Actually is a Christmas tradition for so many people including us.  Beyond being a really well made movie, it just leaves you feeling so festive and happy!

6. Christmas lunch was a delicious assortment of cheese, veggies, hummus, crackers, bread, and prosciutto (for Vishnu).  We don’t celebrate in the religious sense, but like with Thanksgiving, we feel that togetherness, reflection, and gratitude are the essentials of the holiday season.  And what better way to incorporate all of those things than sharing a good meal with someone you love!

7. It’s not that noticeable, but this little blog went through a major change.  I transferred it over from WordPress.com to WordPress.org ALL BY MYSELF!  My new host, Bluehost, was very helpful and available via email, telephone, and live chat, but on my end, it was just me.  I knew I could’ve gone to Vishnu for help, but I wanted to do this on my own.  And while we did hit a rough patch where I thought I lost 13 months of blog posts, it turned out just fine.  GO ME!

What does this mean?  Well for one, I have a new (and in my opinion much cleaner) theme now.  I am trying out a bunch of different plugins and widgets to make the blog more reader friendly.  Other than that, I’m not quite sure yet.  I’m self-hosted now so that gives me more freedom with the things I can do, but we’ll see what 2014 brings.  I’m kinda excited!

I plan on taking the next few days off, so I will see y’all in 2014!  But before I go, I just want to thank you guys for an amazing year of blogging.  I really appreciate the fact that each of you takes time out of your day to read My Inner Shakti!  I LOVE YOU ALL!

How did you spend the holidays?  Any major NYE plans?  Two of our best friends, Samir and Roshni, are visiting for a few days so we’ll be spending NYE with them and a few other friends!  Can’t wait!