Yikes.
So, we're on to the stressful Christmases! Don't get me wrong, I'm still in good spirits and excited about the official holiday jazz, but I'm 100% stressed out!
Firstly, I had 6 packages to be delivered to the house, and after a ton of stress and phone calls I now have 3 in my possession, 1 on the way for sure, and 2 somewhere out there. DHL had marked my package as delivered and it most certainly was NOT. I have no idea what happened, but I filed all my information, called all the appropriate people and after being told "we put it on your porch, TFB" it arrived 2 days later. I hate DHL. Ugh. Another package was shipped from the Erie hub to Kittanning and back to the Erie hub, but USPS is awesome and they told me no worries and the package came the next afternoon. Package 3 came today with no problems; again, yay USPS. So now, I have one package on the way with tracking info pending and a delivery date of Friday. Not too worried about that guy, he's coming through the post office too. The other two, which contain gifts for ALL of Denver's family, are MIA. They were shipped on the 4th with an estimated 3-4 days of shipping. I've never heard of PostNL and I have zero tracking info, so I'm slightly panicked. I just want everything in my hands so I can relax and know it's all done and safe. I guess my finishing-my-shopping-early-to-prevent-holiday-stress plan was a joke. The Postal Gods are laughing! "Bahahaha, stress-free holidays? FOOL!!"
After all the gifts are here I can calm down and prepare for Christmas day, which is going to be interesting and crazy. First we're going to go to Denver's parents for the morning festivities with his whole family, then around noon we'll head to my mom's house. I'm FINALLY going to get to meet Malik, who has apparently moved to actual boyfriend status, and we'll get to spend the afternoon and evening with Erin, Malik and my mom. That should be ridiculous. Then after dinner we're going to peace out and take the 3+ hour drive to Maryland to visit my grandma! This will definitely be an action-packed Christmas! We've only got three days off to squeeze everything in, so I'm hoping this all falls nicely into place. Then, because my mom's parents are a lot closer we'll probably go out to see them as a day trip after the new year.
All the stress is worth it, because I'm so excited to be with Denver right now. We're in such a different place this year. We decorated the tree together, wrapped and shopped together, and "the kitties" got us a GingerDEAD cookie kit, so we're going to make those and fudge together! The GingerDEAD cookie kit is a gingerbread cookie kit, but instead of gingerbread men they're gingerbread ZOMBIES!! Seriously fun, and way better than the gingerbread house making kits we were going to go with. We're going to do our own Christmas on Christmas Eve so we can be crazy people and do everything the next day.
I secretly love all of this insanity. I never had a super busy holiday schedule and it feels good to have two families. I lost my dad, but I have a whole new family to help fill the void. It's been making everything a lot easier, and this year it's making more excited than depressed. I still keep crying, and holiday songs kill me, but I'm focused and I'm happy. I miss my dad every second, but he's with me in my heart and I can see him around me every day. I'm trying to focus on getting through Christmas, because next comes wedding planning. Yikes!
No shame on my musical choice either! Ha!
Firstly, I had 6 packages to be delivered to the house, and after a ton of stress and phone calls I now have 3 in my possession, 1 on the way for sure, and 2 somewhere out there. DHL had marked my package as delivered and it most certainly was NOT. I have no idea what happened, but I filed all my information, called all the appropriate people and after being told "we put it on your porch, TFB" it arrived 2 days later. I hate DHL. Ugh. Another package was shipped from the Erie hub to Kittanning and back to the Erie hub, but USPS is awesome and they told me no worries and the package came the next afternoon. Package 3 came today with no problems; again, yay USPS. So now, I have one package on the way with tracking info pending and a delivery date of Friday. Not too worried about that guy, he's coming through the post office too. The other two, which contain gifts for ALL of Denver's family, are MIA. They were shipped on the 4th with an estimated 3-4 days of shipping. I've never heard of PostNL and I have zero tracking info, so I'm slightly panicked. I just want everything in my hands so I can relax and know it's all done and safe. I guess my finishing-my-shopping-early-to-prevent-holiday-stress plan was a joke. The Postal Gods are laughing! "Bahahaha, stress-free holidays? FOOL!!"
After all the gifts are here I can calm down and prepare for Christmas day, which is going to be interesting and crazy. First we're going to go to Denver's parents for the morning festivities with his whole family, then around noon we'll head to my mom's house. I'm FINALLY going to get to meet Malik, who has apparently moved to actual boyfriend status, and we'll get to spend the afternoon and evening with Erin, Malik and my mom. That should be ridiculous. Then after dinner we're going to peace out and take the 3+ hour drive to Maryland to visit my grandma! This will definitely be an action-packed Christmas! We've only got three days off to squeeze everything in, so I'm hoping this all falls nicely into place. Then, because my mom's parents are a lot closer we'll probably go out to see them as a day trip after the new year.
All the stress is worth it, because I'm so excited to be with Denver right now. We're in such a different place this year. We decorated the tree together, wrapped and shopped together, and "the kitties" got us a GingerDEAD cookie kit, so we're going to make those and fudge together! The GingerDEAD cookie kit is a gingerbread cookie kit, but instead of gingerbread men they're gingerbread ZOMBIES!! Seriously fun, and way better than the gingerbread house making kits we were going to go with. We're going to do our own Christmas on Christmas Eve so we can be crazy people and do everything the next day.
I secretly love all of this insanity. I never had a super busy holiday schedule and it feels good to have two families. I lost my dad, but I have a whole new family to help fill the void. It's been making everything a lot easier, and this year it's making more excited than depressed. I still keep crying, and holiday songs kill me, but I'm focused and I'm happy. I miss my dad every second, but he's with me in my heart and I can see him around me every day. I'm trying to focus on getting through Christmas, because next comes wedding planning. Yikes!
No shame on my musical choice either! Ha!