Overall, our winter break was pretty good maybe too good because this week of return to school has been rough, which I did expect but it doesn't make it any more pleasant. Every morning the first thing my two oldest say is that they are not going to school (which so far they have gotten there eventually). Deep sigh.
My 6 year old says this most days. Sometimes it makes me wish I could go back to the days of being spit up on before work.
I had a mom dinner last week. Usually I don’t like it when we resort to kid talk, but this time it was somewhat nice to hear that it’s not just my own kids who are struggling with the transition.
We were all sick for over a week in the lead up to Christmas, which really cut into preparation time--and depleted my PTO (which was barely there anyway due to all the other viruses we have had this year). So I couldn’t take any days off over the holiday after all, other than Christmas and New Years when the office I work in was closed. I took those unpaid so I could have today off for our daughter’s 4th birthday. This year she was old enough to really get the magic of Christmas and it really gets me in the Christmas spirit to experience it with her! But after today I wish I could sleep for a week. We celebrate my husband’s birthday, my birthday, Christmas, New Year’s and our daughters birthday all between Dec 13-Jan 4. I feel so blessed that we are fortunate enough to have these kind of problems be the biggest we are dealing with, but I’m so tired and stressed. I am starved for downtime. Can anyone relate?
My son’s birthday is in December and it’s exhausting to throw that on top of all the holiday things and winter illnesses. I feel for you! This particular year my son missed school the week of Dec 11 due to flu, and then my daughter missed school the week of Dec 18. It’s a lot.
That is a whole lot of birthdays on top of all the holiday stress and planning! No wonder you are exhausted. I hope you can get a little rest this weekend!!!
I have two kiddo birthdays in October, and that feels like a lot. Multiple birthdays in a month with a (the?) major holiday is SO MUCH. Hugs. I hope your January is full of rest and quiet and whatever recharge you need.
Honestly, it felt very long. A mix of crappy weather (rain almost every day, no sun the whole time); the loss of routine meant my five-year-old turned feral and was very emotional; lots of time spent trying to find stuff to do indoors; change of plans/cancellation of plans because of illness; and for me personally, general disappointment with my husband again. I know it’s silly and small compared to what’s going on in the world, but every time I ask for something specific for Xmas from my husband, he never delivers. Sometimes I feel like I should just buy gifts for myself 🤷🏻♀️ I had to run to a coffee shop and read by myself on Xmas day to give myself some space. The only good thing was seeing the joy on my kid’s face when “Santa” came. Not to be a Grinch but I pretty much hate the holidays (except for the not working part, that’s great!). I’m glad to be back at work and back to our routine.
Honestly, buy the gift for yourself. I don’t know that it will help with the disappointment, but at least you’ll have something that you actually want.
Last year my husband gave me a gift that was actually something he wanted. It wasn’t the first time. This year I did buy my own gift and had him wrap it. It was a much less disappointing experience this time around. I don’t know if I’ll do it again next year, but while more of our gift giving energy is spent of small kids, I just might.
Similar. I let my husband know he would feel weird opening the gifts from me if I didn’t have any from him. He took the hint, but also I saw what happened when we shopped online together for our kids’ gifts (did you all know JC Penny was still in business and sells Casio watches? Me neither!) In short, I impulse bought myself some nice small things at the gift store if the local botanic garden. It felt great treating myself! I loved knowing there was a gorgeous planter in my stocking I wouldn’t have bought otherwise. He bought me some other things I specifically requested/sat next to him while he ordered. 👍 I’ll do the same strategy next year. I don’t see my husband becoming an online shopping maven or a mindreader in the meantime.
I used to be one of those “don’t take off the week between holidays because it’s so quiet and you can get so much done” people, but in the last two years I have changed it up. Now instead, I take off every Friday in December. It gives me at least three (sometimes four) whole days of prep time where the kids are in school and I have the house to myself, and it makes such a huge difference in being able to slow down and enjoy those December weekends with my family vs feeling frantic about squeezing it all in.
I’m lucky enough to have some flexible time off too and am taking every Friday off in January in an attempt to grow back some of my reserves. I really hope it helps!
This sounds a lot like my December -- I really tried to scale back work to make space for all the other stuff. It was wonderful. I'm going to try to do it every year!
Oooof. On Christmas Eve my oldest son (8) asked me point-blank if Santa was real and said "you have to tell me the truth." I tried to spin it as gently as I could and tell him that now he gets to be in on the fun of creating Christmas magic, but he was REALLY hoping for a different answer. Present opening went great but he was weepy and crabby for the rest of the day and I felt like I'd ruined his Christmas. Hoping the memories get better as time passes but this was a rough one.
Oh that's so hard. But you handled it beautifully -- you definitely needed to be honest with him. He was ready to hear it, even though he was upset. I'm sorry it was such a tough day, though.
Our holiday was lovely! We took the kids (6 and 3) on an 8-hour drive (plus stops, so 10), and it went well! There was joy and magic and warm fuzzy feelings. (There were meltdowns, too, but we won't remember those.) Happy new year, everyone!
In the span of four days (22-26 December), my grandmother passed away (not unexpected but still tough, and a cause of much family drama), I got reassessed by the tax agency and told I owe them 3K, my BIL backed into my car, I got a surprise period after four years of no periods (IUD), I washed and dried a red lipstick with my laundry, and I got one of those awful inside-the-nose zits.
The holiday was....fine. It was my first as a mom and I really felt a lot of pressure to "get it right" as opposed to just enjoying it. Also my in laws were visiting and their dog is a menace who pooped in my kitchen soooooo that was a bit stressful. A big win was having daycare open for a few days when my husband and I were off work - truly relaxing to be still in a quiet house. And the cleaners came on January 2 (they come once a month) and there is nothing better than a super clean house to start the week/month/year. Anyways the older I get the more I feel that the holidays are just another couple of weeks in many ways, and the new year is less of a clean slate than a continuation of my very much in progress life.
My husband's family is *a lot* and on the second out of five nights in a row of dinner with 10-13 people, I just couldn't. Literally walked up on my MIL's porch and turned around and bolted. (My husband told everyone I had a stress headache.) It was kind of a miracle that I made it to all the other ones, plus the subsequent mandatory meals with my MIL and BIL while the latter was still in town. But I did. And since I quit my job shortly before Christmas I have plenty of time to recover now.
My seven-year-old is in an early surly teenager phase and spent most of his time with the big groups of family huddled in another room with a screen, which doesn't make me feel great as a parent but also I think he is, as I am, overwhelmed by the family. When he emerged from the screens he had some real conversations with people, at least, and made much of an uncle who really needs the love and attention. The one night my husband and I went out and my mother put him to bed, he spontaneously told her he loves her, which she also needed to hear. Throughout the break he only had two days without a planned activity, but he still got extremely bored and lonely. (Despite having friends in our building -- I don't think he had a single day without at least an hour or two with a friend.) We got him to a couple ski lessons and he is making some real progress and seems to be enjoying it, although I question whether there will be snow, even the human-made kind, by the time he's an adult.
My MIL is about to leave for India for a month and wanted to see us before she left and I was very proud of myself for proposing, successfully, that she come with us to the ice cream place a block from her house that this month and this month only has my kid's favorite two flavors (that would be chocolate and vanilla soft serve). She got to see him at a time when he was pleased with the world rather than being made to sit for the umpteenth time in two weeks in his grandmother's house. So, you know, it all could have been worse.
My kids (especially my 9yo) are also overwhelmed by extended family and also like to hide in their rooms with iPads. I mean, it's overwhelming for us, so it makes sense it might be too much for them, too! I am glad you have some time to recover in the coming weeks.
After making a lovely brunch for my family of 5, I tested positive for covid on Christmas Day. Had to call my parents and tell them we wouldn't be able to drive the hour-and-a-half to their house for Christmas dinner & an overnight visit. This call was tough for me because my mom is in hospice care and this is likely her last Christmas. But fortunately we don't live far from them and we do celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. So we are celebrating with my parents this weekend and calling it an Epiphany party.
I work at a university that is closed between Christmas and New Years. This is wonderful for so many reasons, but this year in particular because covid has totally wiped me out and it was nice not to have to take PTO as I felt awful for the entire break. My husband made delicious dinners for all of us each night while I was sick, which I really appreciated because I do 95% of the cooking most of the time. Plus I did get to binge the Crown which I enjoyed. Our kids are 15, 13, and 11 and so are pretty independent. We did still get out to see some holiday lights at a botanical garden and fortunately had done some fun Christmas-y things before the holiday (neighborhood holiday party, ice skating at our neighborhood city park, going to see the Nutcracker).
Still not feeling good post-covid and am trying to ease back into life and at some point do some professional and personal goal-setting for 2024. Maybe in a week or two!
I'm exhausted. My husband's been applying for jobs or on-call or recovering from a back injury and I feel like I've been single parenting since Thanksgiving. My 3-year-old went feral over break and has been attacking my 6-year-old. Honestly, I want to crawl in a sensory deprivation chamber for about a week.
Baby’s first Christmas trying to visit family: we got stuck at the Chicago airport for 9.5 hours on Christmas Eve, eventually got to our destination at 11.45pm. The next morning the new (giant) puppy terrorizes the 4 year old, baby and presents. The MIL makes passive aggressive comments about how we never visit (we see them minimum 2 weeks a year), the cousins are brats who never get off screens which overstimulates the 4 year old to
not sleep the next couple days, one of them has a fever and the mother tells me (oh yeah we never got our flu shots). Then the BIL and SIL leaves xmas night and we end up dealing with 5 children. Because of the resulting sickness the fancy date night we had planned with babysitting gets canceled and instead the baby vomits on me head to toe, exorcist style. But we managed a first xmas that we couldn’t for my first due to covid! Making memories right?!?!?
This was the year I realized my aging parents (who flew up to spend Christmas with us) are more work than my 6-year-old.
I've commenced my annual January depression (not necessarily post-holiday, goes a little deeper, but sucks nonethless) and am just perseverating on why it was so hard and how I dealt with it so poorly.
I'm sorry. I hope you can allow yourself some grace. I imagine one key reason you didn't live up to your own expectations is because you had so so much to deal with (probably more than most other members of your family) and doing it all well was just impossible!
I know the feeling of realizing that parents are more work than kids and cause too much strife to be with them all the time. Cheers to 'boundaries' and to 'distance' which can allow you to have your own life and empowerment away from people who drain you of your own resources. I do understand though that even seeing parents a few times a year can still be a monumental task...sometimes just a short lunch with them can trigger so much. It's a tough conflict and a sensitive balance of wanting to maintain relationships (especially since they are aging), having grace for and wanting to uphold them, and yet wanting to be away from toxicity. Go easy on yourself. There is no right answer. What works one visit/month/year/day may not work the next. Also, it probably doesn't help that there are many people who have close relationships with their families where it is just easy. Remember that there are many people who also have similar parental issues as yourself and that there is a whole gamut of dysfunction we somehow all share. You can build your own family and network of people who are healthier and- if it feels reasonable/desirable/doable- still have a relationship (even a guarded one) with our parents.
This year was actually a little calmer that past years, despite my mom being here (which always ups my stress). I took all the Fridays in December off, which helped. Got slightly sick, which didn't help, but my eldest also got it and thus missed some activities, which helped. I also just gave up on a bunch of things, which definintely helped and was less sad than in past years. My partner spontaneously offered to help with the Christmas cards, so that helped a lot. There were one or two downright relaxing days right after Christmas. It's been hard to get back in the swing of work though.
Well I feel in good company here. My FIL died two days before Christmas; not a huge surprise when it happened, but would have been unthinkable in November. So the holidays were definitely less than joyous (I would classify them as "a drum beat of constant anxiety"), and January is all logistics, funerals, and supporting my spouse and in-laws. I would like a refund for my holidays, please.
The lead up to the holiday break was exhausting. We found out my old cat has renal failure and now we’re doing daily fluid treatments.
With twin 3 year olds, our geriatric cat and an EV, we drove the 6 (more like 10) hours to spend the holiday with my extended family for the first time since my kids were born. The drive was mostly torture for all parties, but the time with family was wonderful. Distance travel with the EV was interesting. We managed to charge but not without extra stress, waiting and cutting it close in terms of remaining mileage.
And my husband tested positive for Covid a few days after we got home.
My kiddos are out of school this week and it’s been nice to hang with them without feeling like we’re rushing to or from somewhere. But I threw my back out and am also on primary child care duty because of Covid (though husband conveniently “forgot” to schedule PTO for any time this week even though that’s what we planned, and got schedule for a bunch of meetings).
I’m spent and could really use some downtime where I’m not responsible for anyone but myself!
Overall, our winter break was pretty good maybe too good because this week of return to school has been rough, which I did expect but it doesn't make it any more pleasant. Every morning the first thing my two oldest say is that they are not going to school (which so far they have gotten there eventually). Deep sigh.
Transitions are SO HARD. Sending strength!!!
My 6 year old says this most days. Sometimes it makes me wish I could go back to the days of being spit up on before work.
I had a mom dinner last week. Usually I don’t like it when we resort to kid talk, but this time it was somewhat nice to hear that it’s not just my own kids who are struggling with the transition.
Yes, it's true. Even though it was definitely hard when they were young, I sometimes wonder what did I think was so hard? It's all relative.
We were all sick for over a week in the lead up to Christmas, which really cut into preparation time--and depleted my PTO (which was barely there anyway due to all the other viruses we have had this year). So I couldn’t take any days off over the holiday after all, other than Christmas and New Years when the office I work in was closed. I took those unpaid so I could have today off for our daughter’s 4th birthday. This year she was old enough to really get the magic of Christmas and it really gets me in the Christmas spirit to experience it with her! But after today I wish I could sleep for a week. We celebrate my husband’s birthday, my birthday, Christmas, New Year’s and our daughters birthday all between Dec 13-Jan 4. I feel so blessed that we are fortunate enough to have these kind of problems be the biggest we are dealing with, but I’m so tired and stressed. I am starved for downtime. Can anyone relate?
My son’s birthday is in December and it’s exhausting to throw that on top of all the holiday things and winter illnesses. I feel for you! This particular year my son missed school the week of Dec 11 due to flu, and then my daughter missed school the week of Dec 18. It’s a lot.
Definitely can relate! I feel like I need a vacation from the “holiday.” I find the holidays to be exhausting.
That is a whole lot of birthdays on top of all the holiday stress and planning! No wonder you are exhausted. I hope you can get a little rest this weekend!!!
I have two kiddo birthdays in October, and that feels like a lot. Multiple birthdays in a month with a (the?) major holiday is SO MUCH. Hugs. I hope your January is full of rest and quiet and whatever recharge you need.
Honestly, it felt very long. A mix of crappy weather (rain almost every day, no sun the whole time); the loss of routine meant my five-year-old turned feral and was very emotional; lots of time spent trying to find stuff to do indoors; change of plans/cancellation of plans because of illness; and for me personally, general disappointment with my husband again. I know it’s silly and small compared to what’s going on in the world, but every time I ask for something specific for Xmas from my husband, he never delivers. Sometimes I feel like I should just buy gifts for myself 🤷🏻♀️ I had to run to a coffee shop and read by myself on Xmas day to give myself some space. The only good thing was seeing the joy on my kid’s face when “Santa” came. Not to be a Grinch but I pretty much hate the holidays (except for the not working part, that’s great!). I’m glad to be back at work and back to our routine.
Honestly, buy the gift for yourself. I don’t know that it will help with the disappointment, but at least you’ll have something that you actually want.
This year i gave my husband a specific xmas list for this reason
Agree. If you want it, get it. We deserve to give ourselves gifts, too.
Last year my husband gave me a gift that was actually something he wanted. It wasn’t the first time. This year I did buy my own gift and had him wrap it. It was a much less disappointing experience this time around. I don’t know if I’ll do it again next year, but while more of our gift giving energy is spent of small kids, I just might.
Similar. I let my husband know he would feel weird opening the gifts from me if I didn’t have any from him. He took the hint, but also I saw what happened when we shopped online together for our kids’ gifts (did you all know JC Penny was still in business and sells Casio watches? Me neither!) In short, I impulse bought myself some nice small things at the gift store if the local botanic garden. It felt great treating myself! I loved knowing there was a gorgeous planter in my stocking I wouldn’t have bought otherwise. He bought me some other things I specifically requested/sat next to him while he ordered. 👍 I’ll do the same strategy next year. I don’t see my husband becoming an online shopping maven or a mindreader in the meantime.
I used to be one of those “don’t take off the week between holidays because it’s so quiet and you can get so much done” people, but in the last two years I have changed it up. Now instead, I take off every Friday in December. It gives me at least three (sometimes four) whole days of prep time where the kids are in school and I have the house to myself, and it makes such a huge difference in being able to slow down and enjoy those December weekends with my family vs feeling frantic about squeezing it all in.
I’m lucky enough to have some flexible time off too and am taking every Friday off in January in an attempt to grow back some of my reserves. I really hope it helps!
Genius.
This sounds a lot like my December -- I really tried to scale back work to make space for all the other stuff. It was wonderful. I'm going to try to do it every year!
Oooof. On Christmas Eve my oldest son (8) asked me point-blank if Santa was real and said "you have to tell me the truth." I tried to spin it as gently as I could and tell him that now he gets to be in on the fun of creating Christmas magic, but he was REALLY hoping for a different answer. Present opening went great but he was weepy and crabby for the rest of the day and I felt like I'd ruined his Christmas. Hoping the memories get better as time passes but this was a rough one.
Oh, gosh, Melinda. What a monkey wrench. If it's any consolation, I don't recall any bad memories upon learning the real deal with Santa.
Oh man, that’s tough. I’m sorry.
Oh that's so hard. But you handled it beautifully -- you definitely needed to be honest with him. He was ready to hear it, even though he was upset. I'm sorry it was such a tough day, though.
Our holiday was lovely! We took the kids (6 and 3) on an 8-hour drive (plus stops, so 10), and it went well! There was joy and magic and warm fuzzy feelings. (There were meltdowns, too, but we won't remember those.) Happy new year, everyone!
In the span of four days (22-26 December), my grandmother passed away (not unexpected but still tough, and a cause of much family drama), I got reassessed by the tax agency and told I owe them 3K, my BIL backed into my car, I got a surprise period after four years of no periods (IUD), I washed and dried a red lipstick with my laundry, and I got one of those awful inside-the-nose zits.
No wonder I am so tired.
Oh man. I’m so sorry.
Thank you.
Oh, Rhiannon! That is so much! I'm so sorry!!!!! I hope January brings better things.
Thank you, Melinda. I really appreciate that.
Oh my goodness. That’s just way too many things! Sending hope for a restorative January (and February too for that matter!).
The holiday was....fine. It was my first as a mom and I really felt a lot of pressure to "get it right" as opposed to just enjoying it. Also my in laws were visiting and their dog is a menace who pooped in my kitchen soooooo that was a bit stressful. A big win was having daycare open for a few days when my husband and I were off work - truly relaxing to be still in a quiet house. And the cleaners came on January 2 (they come once a month) and there is nothing better than a super clean house to start the week/month/year. Anyways the older I get the more I feel that the holidays are just another couple of weeks in many ways, and the new year is less of a clean slate than a continuation of my very much in progress life.
The holidays with a baby — and un-housetrained dog visitor!!! -- are really hard. Sending hugs!
I guess I survived.
My husband's family is *a lot* and on the second out of five nights in a row of dinner with 10-13 people, I just couldn't. Literally walked up on my MIL's porch and turned around and bolted. (My husband told everyone I had a stress headache.) It was kind of a miracle that I made it to all the other ones, plus the subsequent mandatory meals with my MIL and BIL while the latter was still in town. But I did. And since I quit my job shortly before Christmas I have plenty of time to recover now.
My seven-year-old is in an early surly teenager phase and spent most of his time with the big groups of family huddled in another room with a screen, which doesn't make me feel great as a parent but also I think he is, as I am, overwhelmed by the family. When he emerged from the screens he had some real conversations with people, at least, and made much of an uncle who really needs the love and attention. The one night my husband and I went out and my mother put him to bed, he spontaneously told her he loves her, which she also needed to hear. Throughout the break he only had two days without a planned activity, but he still got extremely bored and lonely. (Despite having friends in our building -- I don't think he had a single day without at least an hour or two with a friend.) We got him to a couple ski lessons and he is making some real progress and seems to be enjoying it, although I question whether there will be snow, even the human-made kind, by the time he's an adult.
My MIL is about to leave for India for a month and wanted to see us before she left and I was very proud of myself for proposing, successfully, that she come with us to the ice cream place a block from her house that this month and this month only has my kid's favorite two flavors (that would be chocolate and vanilla soft serve). She got to see him at a time when he was pleased with the world rather than being made to sit for the umpteenth time in two weeks in his grandmother's house. So, you know, it all could have been worse.
My kids (especially my 9yo) are also overwhelmed by extended family and also like to hide in their rooms with iPads. I mean, it's overwhelming for us, so it makes sense it might be too much for them, too! I am glad you have some time to recover in the coming weeks.
After making a lovely brunch for my family of 5, I tested positive for covid on Christmas Day. Had to call my parents and tell them we wouldn't be able to drive the hour-and-a-half to their house for Christmas dinner & an overnight visit. This call was tough for me because my mom is in hospice care and this is likely her last Christmas. But fortunately we don't live far from them and we do celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. So we are celebrating with my parents this weekend and calling it an Epiphany party.
I work at a university that is closed between Christmas and New Years. This is wonderful for so many reasons, but this year in particular because covid has totally wiped me out and it was nice not to have to take PTO as I felt awful for the entire break. My husband made delicious dinners for all of us each night while I was sick, which I really appreciated because I do 95% of the cooking most of the time. Plus I did get to binge the Crown which I enjoyed. Our kids are 15, 13, and 11 and so are pretty independent. We did still get out to see some holiday lights at a botanical garden and fortunately had done some fun Christmas-y things before the holiday (neighborhood holiday party, ice skating at our neighborhood city park, going to see the Nutcracker).
Still not feeling good post-covid and am trying to ease back into life and at some point do some professional and personal goal-setting for 2024. Maybe in a week or two!
I am so sorry to hear about the Covid and not getting to see your mom. Sending hugs and hoping you fully recover this month.
I'm exhausted. My husband's been applying for jobs or on-call or recovering from a back injury and I feel like I've been single parenting since Thanksgiving. My 3-year-old went feral over break and has been attacking my 6-year-old. Honestly, I want to crawl in a sensory deprivation chamber for about a week.
That is A LOT. I hope you can get some rest time soon!!!
Baby’s first Christmas trying to visit family: we got stuck at the Chicago airport for 9.5 hours on Christmas Eve, eventually got to our destination at 11.45pm. The next morning the new (giant) puppy terrorizes the 4 year old, baby and presents. The MIL makes passive aggressive comments about how we never visit (we see them minimum 2 weeks a year), the cousins are brats who never get off screens which overstimulates the 4 year old to
not sleep the next couple days, one of them has a fever and the mother tells me (oh yeah we never got our flu shots). Then the BIL and SIL leaves xmas night and we end up dealing with 5 children. Because of the resulting sickness the fancy date night we had planned with babysitting gets canceled and instead the baby vomits on me head to toe, exorcist style. But we managed a first xmas that we couldn’t for my first due to covid! Making memories right?!?!?
Omgggg Susan!!!!!!!! This is so much!!!!! I hope you get some rest -- and a date night -- soon.
This was the year I realized my aging parents (who flew up to spend Christmas with us) are more work than my 6-year-old.
I've commenced my annual January depression (not necessarily post-holiday, goes a little deeper, but sucks nonethless) and am just perseverating on why it was so hard and how I dealt with it so poorly.
I'm sorry. I hope you can allow yourself some grace. I imagine one key reason you didn't live up to your own expectations is because you had so so much to deal with (probably more than most other members of your family) and doing it all well was just impossible!
I know the feeling of realizing that parents are more work than kids and cause too much strife to be with them all the time. Cheers to 'boundaries' and to 'distance' which can allow you to have your own life and empowerment away from people who drain you of your own resources. I do understand though that even seeing parents a few times a year can still be a monumental task...sometimes just a short lunch with them can trigger so much. It's a tough conflict and a sensitive balance of wanting to maintain relationships (especially since they are aging), having grace for and wanting to uphold them, and yet wanting to be away from toxicity. Go easy on yourself. There is no right answer. What works one visit/month/year/day may not work the next. Also, it probably doesn't help that there are many people who have close relationships with their families where it is just easy. Remember that there are many people who also have similar parental issues as yourself and that there is a whole gamut of dysfunction we somehow all share. You can build your own family and network of people who are healthier and- if it feels reasonable/desirable/doable- still have a relationship (even a guarded one) with our parents.
This year was actually a little calmer that past years, despite my mom being here (which always ups my stress). I took all the Fridays in December off, which helped. Got slightly sick, which didn't help, but my eldest also got it and thus missed some activities, which helped. I also just gave up on a bunch of things, which definintely helped and was less sad than in past years. My partner spontaneously offered to help with the Christmas cards, so that helped a lot. There were one or two downright relaxing days right after Christmas. It's been hard to get back in the swing of work though.
Glad this year was a little calmer.... I hear you on having a tough time getting back into work!!!
Well I feel in good company here. My FIL died two days before Christmas; not a huge surprise when it happened, but would have been unthinkable in November. So the holidays were definitely less than joyous (I would classify them as "a drum beat of constant anxiety"), and January is all logistics, funerals, and supporting my spouse and in-laws. I would like a refund for my holidays, please.
I'm so sorry for your loss, and the resulting stressors.
I'm so sorry to hear. Sending love.
I feel this so hard. I hope you are able to get something resembling a real holiday, soon.
The lead up to the holiday break was exhausting. We found out my old cat has renal failure and now we’re doing daily fluid treatments.
With twin 3 year olds, our geriatric cat and an EV, we drove the 6 (more like 10) hours to spend the holiday with my extended family for the first time since my kids were born. The drive was mostly torture for all parties, but the time with family was wonderful. Distance travel with the EV was interesting. We managed to charge but not without extra stress, waiting and cutting it close in terms of remaining mileage.
And my husband tested positive for Covid a few days after we got home.
My kiddos are out of school this week and it’s been nice to hang with them without feeling like we’re rushing to or from somewhere. But I threw my back out and am also on primary child care duty because of Covid (though husband conveniently “forgot” to schedule PTO for any time this week even though that’s what we planned, and got schedule for a bunch of meetings).
I’m spent and could really use some downtime where I’m not responsible for anyone but myself!
That sounds exhausting! I hope your husband and your back recover quickly and you get some real rest very soon.