You've Lost That Christmas Feeling!

I started listening to holiday music immediately after Thanksgiving. Okay, fine. I started a few days before Thanksgiving. I had a tree in my apartment and decorated by the first weekend in December. But somehow, Christmas really snuck up on me this year.

It's always fun to receive gifts but I truly love to give them. This year, due to my unemployed status, I knew the giving part would be a little difficult. Thankfully, I landed a temporary freelance gig and started right before the holiday. Sure, it's only temporary but I'm thrilled.

After my first day, what did I do? Shop you say? No, I went home and cried to my mom on the phone. I was exhausted after working a full day. It had been months since I'd gotten up at 7am and worked all day. I was overwhelmed by the work. I knew I could handle it but I forgot how overwhelming is to learn a whole new set of processes.

And then I realized Christmas was just days away. At my old job, I always took a few days before Christmas off. My favorite days are the ones leading up to the holiday. (In fact, I had asked for a few of those days and they weren't immediately approved. It was the first thing that tipped me off that I might get laid off.) I was thrilled to be working again but a little part of me wished for a few more days of unemployment. After all this downtime, I was back at work during my favorite time of year.

I was worried that working would take away from the feeling of Christmas. The office was closed Christmas Eve and I was able to get out a bit early the day before and head to my Mom's house. As soon as I my sister picked me up, it started to feel like Christmas because we headed to the mall, of course! Had to get that Christmas shopping done!

Hope you all had a happy and safe holiday!