Oh hey, did you hear? Christmas shopping is exhausting.

So it's late December here in Illinois, and at least where I live, in the Northwest suburbs, we've had no measurable, lasting snowfall to render this year's Christmas "white". But walk into any store, or spend at least two minutes in any parking lot within a hundred miles of here and there's no question – it's definitely the holidays. I'm finishing a week of going in and out of the same mall (and it's surrounding stores) almost everyday. And while I do love getting bundled up and cute in my winter garb, it is HOT once you're actually in there, side-by side with hundreds of other last-minute shoppers, latte in hand. It's tiring, but also somewhat fun to be caught up in all that commotion. At the end of the day, you end up looking like this:

One more post tomorrow for Pink Friday (and it sure is lovely), then I'll probably be hibernating for a few days to a week. Because seriously, dudes. I've got shoulder/back issues just from this past week of bag handling. Not that that would interfere with posting, but it is the holidays after all. Image via Tania Shcheglova