Holiday Season Craze

It's unfortunate that as I've gotten older, the glitz and glam that is known as "the holidays," is no longer as pretty and shiny to me. A friend of mine told be she watched a little kid go crazy over seeing santa clause and the mall. I miss the days of innocence and truth as far as the imagination would take you.

With that said, this holiday season has been a roller coaster of emotions. I had my two assistant managers quit, my regional manager blamed me and called my store a "toilet bowl for managers. You get one and flush them right down the drain" (though it was NOT my fault, might I add), I worked nine days straight with christmas as my one day off and am right back in the grind of work for a seven day stretch.

Aside from all the ugliness that December has brought about, I've had a lot of golden nuggets of happiness from it too. My sister got the change to spend a week with me in Austin. It was great having her around. We had a lovely photo shoot session, did some baking, shopped for gifts, and lounged around whenever possible.

I also had a really lovely christmas! My mr's parents were amazing enough to buy me a ticket to Dallas so I could spend christmas with my bf and his family. It was a great blessing. I flew out of Austin after work on the 24th. After they all picked me up from the airport, we all filled our bellies with dinner at Papaduex, then went to Deerfield to look at the christmas lights in the neighborhood. We listened to the Glee christmas soundtrack on the drive back to Sulphur Springs, TX (where the mr's from). It was so much fun!

Christmas day was relaxing. I got to sleep in! We had waffles for breakfast and opened presents. I truly wasn't expecting much because I didn't ask for anything, but I got the most fitting surprise gift: a Kindle! Originally, I was against the idea of an electronic device replacing the wonderful feel and smell of a book, but it's just so pretty I can't help but love it! I got a gift card to Amazon too, so I get to download all the books I want. The only problem was, I couldn't think of many. I got a couple of Kurt Vonnegut book (he's my new found author love), and a few classics including Alice in Wonderland, Aesop's Fables and Dante's Inferno. If anyone has any suggestion, please send them my way.

Phil got a Kinect from his parents. The family spent the whole evening jumping, jabbing and crouching to skiing, boxing and football games. I'm pretty sure everyone ended the day sore and realizing how out of shape they were--except for myself, of course :). The day ended early for me and my mr. I had to be at work the next day at 10am. I went to bed at 9pm so we could hit the road by 4am to make it back to Austin in time. Fortunately, I slept most of the way and got home in time for a 30 minute nap. That day was the longest day ever! I worked a 10 hour shift with no break or another manager to help. Pretty tiresome, but I survived.

I'm very much looking forward to the new year. I'm excited to see what amazing things 2011 will bring. I'm hoping for new friendships, lessons learned, memories to photograph and write about and many smiles and laughs. Cheers!