Five Things Friday: The Christmas Money

Happy Friday!  It's been a couple weeks since I've done a Five Things post, and in the meantime, we've had  Christmas!  So I thought I'd take today to show you Five Things that I've been excited to purchase with my Christmas money.  Patrick usually gives me money for Christmas, which I know is not all that exciting to those of you who like having some substantial to open on the Big Day.  But not me.  I love having some play money.  I love spending the next few weeks carefully planning out what I would like to purchase and I love having the freedom to just go to the mall or browse online and actually buy something if I want it!  (Instead of the "window shopping" I usually do.)  It's a luxury.  Here's how it's gone so far:

 I've been wanting a cast iron dutch oven in a bright fun color, so I finally got one!  It's Lodge and the color is Island Spice.  It just arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm excited to try out.  In the meantime, it looks very pretty just sitting on my stove.

I've been needing some new running shoes and what great motivation to kick off my resolution!

I bought this yellow and cream striped cardigan at Target.  I love having a little extra spending money when I go to Target so I can make a fun purchase with no guilt.  I love this cardigan!  It's a great length and it's super comfy and cute.  I have already worn it a ton.

So I've used about half of it so far.  I also have some birthday money to put with it to make it go a little further.  I've considered using the last of it to buy one of these:

That, or splurge and buy a really awesome pair of shoes.  I <3 shoes.

Just dreaming a little a bit.

Happy Friday!

I am looking forward to a 3-day weekend!  How about you?