Christmas was officially over, but I was luckily still in the beginnings of a long holiday vacation. I love it when you have so much time off that you don’t even know what day it is, or even care for that matter.

When it came to festivities and the goals I set for myself to celebrate the season (dubbed The Christmas Project – thanks, I came up with that myself!), I did pretty well, though admittedly there were some…um…hiccups.

1. Decorate my apartment. 

Result: DONE 

While my prized glitter poinsettia plant (pictured in the header) died about 2 weeks before Christmas, all was well when my Christmas tree came along and provided the warmest, festive feeling whenever I was home. You can read about my tree experience here.

2. Watch at least 2 Christmas themed movies a week.

Result: DONE

Love Actually kicked-off a Holiday flick marathon for the whole month of December. Along with The Holiday, This Christmas, Just Friends, Home Alone, Fred Claus (which was so awful I turned it off so this might not count), Rare Exports, and Gremlins.

3. Get Christmas shopping done well before Christmas.

Result: DONE

I can proudly say that thanks to my pre-planning using a secret Pinterest board, this gal was done Christmas shopping by December 21st! Some of my favorites to hand out this year was an engraved business card holder for my boyfriend’s Mom who just started a new jewelry business, and tickets to The Groundlings (the best improve show in L.A.) for my boyfriend.

4. Bake something festive.

Result: FAIL

Let’s just say I did A LOT of eating of festive inspired cookies, but failed to actually make them. Honestly, this was the holiday goal I knew would be the most challenging for me to get to, even as I was typing it I wasn’t very confident. For now, this handy collage of images I made from Pinterest images will have to do in place of the fact that I was too lame enough to follow through.

5. Lots of Hot Cocoa.

Result: DONE

Okay, so I didn’t exactly count how many cups I’ve had, but suffice to say that I had at least  2 cups per week.

6. Be present.

Result: DONE (to the best of my ability)

This one is hard to gauge whether or not I actually accomplished enough to say one way or another. On the one hand, I listened to Christmas music, watched movies, decorated my apartment, wrapped gifts, and spent time with some of my favorite people celebrating the season. However, it’s no secret that this Holiday season was overshadowed by some bad news both personally and in the world around me. Suddenly, I felt guilty and a sense of missing cheer about wanting to be active in the season in light of certain events. I will give myself an “A” for effort because as I reflect, I know I did the best that I could, given the circumstances. Once we hit Santa Cruz and got into the spirit, I couldn’t have been more present and welcomed the feeling.