Happy and warm Friday greetings, everyone! How did your first full week of 2015 go? We are nesting around here today in anticipation of a bit of launching happening this weekend. Maddy leaves on Saturday morning for her trip to the Middle East (including Dubai, Jordan, and Israel) and then Sam leaves Monday for a week of church summer camp, making next week a bit of a dress rehearsal for the eventual empty nest happening in a few years (!) 

What's on the docket for your weekend? 

A few good gems to take you into the weekend:

Two interesting pieces of research about motherhood and brains:  Scientists have discovered children's cells in their mother's brains (there's definitely a joke about getting kids to move out in there, too) and what happens to a woman's brain structurally when she becomes a mother. Fascinating!
 

Oh, my. This adorable footage of Bao Bao's first snow day cheers me to no end. Three words: Rolling panda baby.  

Speaking of animals (and firmly in the silly category), how about an entire tumblr dedicated to Putin posing with animals? (Thanks, Maddy.)

What do you when you get sad? Some great crowdsourcing on some small things to boost the post-holiday blahs.

I'm excited for two of my very best imaginary friends, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, to host the Golden Globes this Sunday. A short history of their friendship here. A funny preview of their hosting plan here. (To clarify, when I say imaginary friends I mean in my imagination we are friends--not that I think that they themselves are imaginary people. Also what does it say about me that I first automatically typed "golden grahams" instead of golden globes? )

Baroness von Schraeder's slightly bitter side of the Sound of Music story had me laughing.

If you have a thing for BBC shows like I do, keep your eyes out for Grantchester, a new series featuring an attractive British detective (Robson Green) and an attractive minister (James Norton) solving crimes in a small 1953 English village. It's set to premiere in the US on PBS on January 18th.  I haven't seen it yet but it looks promising.
 

Angie from You Look Fab swears by these white denim boyfriend jeans, her go-to white pants for two years running (and they made it on her end-of-year favorite outfits list, too). I'm not usually a white jeans gal but I just noticed they're on sale at Amazon so I'm definitely giving them a try! 
 

Literary Starbucks imagines what famous authors and literary characters would do at Starbucks. From December 3rd, for example: Spartacus goes up to the counter and orders a cappuccino. The barista calls his name. Everyone in the Starbucks stands up one by one. "I am Spartacus." "I am Spartacus!" "No I am Spartacus!" The barista gives up and just makes cappuccinos for all of them."  Get your daily dose here.
 

Have a great weekend, all! See you back here next week. x