SICK!

I've had one sickly season. Over the past few months, I've had 2 colds, one really bad sore throat, and now the flu (note to self: next time your company offers free flu shots, GET ONE). This sucks big time. Actually, I'm almost over it. But throwing up from 9:30 pm Christmas night until 3 am the next morning was NOT my idea of fun. Truly a miserable experience. Maybe it's time for me to buy some vitamins, yes?

tis the season

What is Christmas supposed to "feel" like? I hear a lot of people say, and have even said myself, that it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I guess when I was a kid, Christmas felt magical and exciting, with the gifts and lights and food and parties. Even though all of that still happens, it's just not the same as when we were younger. Besides, none of that is what Christmas is all about, so when we as adults say it doesn't "feel" like Christmas, what exactly does that mean? It's Jesus' birthday. How should that make us feel?

"The Only Thing Constant is Change"

Did I butcher that quote? In any case, it seems to be the theme in our office these past few months (and even earlier). Our workforce has been greatly reduced, almost all of middle and upper management is brand new, and no one account is handled exactly the same as the next in the name of "improvement." It's frustrating and disheartening, but with change comes the possibility of something better on the other side.

Right now, we're in the middle of extreme uncertainty as we venture into new areas of our business with tough competition suddenly encroaching in on a market we used to dominate. Is it worth sticking out the rough transitions to see what may develop down the road? There's really no way to know. One of my favorite and closest coworkers (and supervisor) just put in her notice and I cried when I found out. I've always said that one of the main things I like about my job is the people I work with directly, and that factor is slowly being eliminated. If the trend continues, what does that leave me with? That said, I don't feel nearly as hopeless about the situation as I thought I would, and I'd like to adopt an "I can rise to the challenge" attitude in the face of all this change. Here's hoping ...

Holidays

We finally got a Christmas tree yesterday (yes a Christmas tree, not a HOLIDAY tree -- that's a subject for another day) and decorated the house with all our Christmas decorations, candles, etc. That atmosphere really does help me get into the "Christmas spirit." This Christmas will be different for us in a couple ways. First of all, Jason and I went to IKEA on Friday and bought each other all our Christmas gifts there. It was great! We got a bunch of stuff for the house for a very nice price, but that means no presents under our tree on Christmas Day. Also, my brother will be home for Christmas for the first time in years. He lives in Taiwan and usually gets home during the Chinese New Year at the end of January, but somehow he managed to pull off a Christmas break this year which is cool. Plus, it's our first Christmas in our new house, so that's fun. We didn't get lights on the outside of our house this year because of our schedules and the weather (should've cashed in on the warm Thanksgiving weekend!), but the inside is beautiful and hopefully next year we'll be more outwardly festive :)

Merry Christmas, friends!
I love this picture of my niece:

Taste

It's amazing how essential the sense of taste/smell is to the enjoyment of life. I've had a cold for over a week now (I don't know why I can't get over it - it's really annoying) ... but only recently have I lost the ability to taste my food. So there was cake at work today and I took a piece - loaded with frosting, just like I like it ... and lo and behold, I had to imagine what it tastes like. What fun is consuming calories if you can't even taste them?! It makes me appreciate that I normally have all five functioning senses. And it makes me realize that perhaps I put a little too much value on food in my life ...

Quick story about that ... when my dad had cancer and couldn't stomach much food, my sister and I wanted to do something for him to cheer him up. But all the ideas we came up with revolved around food! Taking him out to eat, baking him cookies, buying him his favorite snacks. We did finally create a memory book for him, but man oh man it was hard to find non-food-related pick-me-ups!