And here we are just 5 days to go.
Three more days of work and I am home free until January 4th, 2021.
I want this week to go slowly because I want to take it all in.
Right now, I am sitting in my living room with just the tree lights on. My blinds are open so I can see out the porch windows. Grey skies make the tree lights on the porch stand out too.
There is another tree, it is sitting in my office at work. Still decorated for St Patrick’s day, how sad.
On the plus side, the cards have been mailed, the cookies have been delivered to family, the gifts wrapped and the house looks festive.
Jenn and I have made a list of what needs to be accomplished between now and Wednesday night. Our goal is to have everything done so when we wake up for our favorite day of the year, we can soak in and enjoy every minute, the same for Christmas Day.
At work, we are working through a huge challenging reorganization. The team I managed for a few years and was the best version of a dream team has been split up. This has been very hard for me.We had formed a work family. I wont lose them as many have become friends too.
We still had our Secret Santa exchange this week. We did it on Webex so we could see each other, open our gifts and find out who our Secret Santa was. The Head Elf, Jenn, was surprised with gifts too.
The best gift was letters to me from each member of my team. I had to wait until the evening as I was afraid that I would ugly cry while reading them in front of my former team.
Each letter was unique. Whether a person had been on Team Pizzo for a few months or a few years, each talked about the support they received from each other. I was touched as each letter spoke about the uniqueness of our team and my role as their manager.
Yes, I did ugly cry.
I doubt I will ever have a team like this again.
I was thinking again about when I was young and what I wanted for Christmas. Things such as the easy bake oven, the game operation, some other popular toys never appeared Christmas morning. As a teenager, the list of “didn’t gets” included, an ankle bracelet, a boyfriend and a princess phone for my bedroom. The lack of a phone just led to the option many teenagers chose, stretch the phone cord from the wall phone around the corner, down a short hall way and into my bedroom behind closed doors. As a young Mom as I have written before, the hardest thing was not being able to afford the American Girl doll that all of Jenn’s friend were getting (although I did rectify the situation 30 years later).
Now that I am at a point in my life where there are more Christmas’s behind me than in front of me.
I have have come to some conclusions.
It’s not the big house.
It’s not the expensive car.
It’s not the over the top vacation that matters.
It’s the memories, the daily laughter, the friends and the love that are now the greatest gifts I can give or receive.
Merry Christmas!!
See you next week,
