PHEW!

2007-12-17 12:18:42

Just needing to vent for a moment….please bear with me….

Is ANYONE else feeling overwhelmed and exhausted right now??? I mean, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the holidays…but often, I find myself not even being able to enjoy them because of the CHAOS that comes with them!! Maybe it’s just me….but with all the work, events, family stuff, etc…I’m just spent!! I have two weddings and several other shoots all in line for blogging, countless events to edit, endless other “must have done by Christmas” work deadlines, pages of emails to get to, am hosting parties, attending parties, getting about 3 hours of sleep a night, haven’t even STARTED my Christmas shopping, have no time to keep up with anything, never got to sending holiday cards, have no idea when I’m going to be able to wrap or do any of that stuff….and all the while, am attempting to enjoy this season (because it’s really my favorite time of year!) and be in a CHEERY mood!! 🙂 I remember being in this hopeful, “the holidays are coming” cheery mood roughly a month ago, thinking that I would be all caught up at Christmas and it would be soo great…I could enjoy the time, do neat Christmas cards, meet up with all the friends that we were hoping to see for fun holiday evenings out, be able to get thoughtful gifts for all of our friends that always do GREAT stuff for us, be done with my shopping early, have things wrapped before my usual midnight on Christmas EVE timing, Mark and I could enjoy a night out and go to the Yuletide Celebration and feel GREAT….and somehow in all those happy, cheery thoughts, I failed to consider all the work that Christmas deadlines and the fact that my shooting season would still be in full swing with weddings and portraits, that I would have volunteered to host parties, have out of town friends in for several days, would be attending LOTS of events and not even be able to get a full nights SLEEP in, let alone be caught up OR be ahead of schedule!! I must have had a few too many glasses of wine when I got in that hopeful, “I will be the cheery queen of holiday bliss” mood…but now….I’m back on earth and being realistic!! Soo, if you are waiting on things from me, I sincerely appreciate your patience and I assure you that I will be working around the clock to getting everything done on time!

I invite you to revisit the blog about a week from now when I will be out of the crazy CHAOS that I am in and I will be sending a cheery, Christmas message your way that will be MUCH more positive and happy than this one! haa!! 🙂 If you don’t see that message on my blog, then you can trust that I will be shopping for my gifts because Christmas eve looks to be the magic day for that! ha! 🙂

No really, HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone!! I truly hope you are all enjoying the season and a bit less stressed than I! I’m deeply grateful, none the less, to be very busy and have my family and friends to share the holiday with….and for the unbelievable amount of blessings in my life!! Thank you for allowing me to VENT, though!!! 🙂

13 responses to “PHEW!”

  1. LOL….YOU ARE SOOOO NOT ALONE!!!!! I was just taking a “child TIME OUT” thinking the EXACT same thing!!!! I don’t have all that you have going on, exactly, but that “OVERWHELMED” feeling, the one that you tell yourself “I just cannot take ANYMORE” only to find that one more thing appears on your plate….YEA…I FEEL YA!!!! Take time for yourself, & breathe, its amazing how it re-energizes you……HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! Oh, & you WILL NOT be alone in that Christmas Eve shopping rush, or up til the wee hours of the morning on Christmas finishing up your wrapping….we should get a conference call going with a bottle of wine, or whatever your drink of preference is, & at least have some fun with it……

  2. I’m right there with you Jessica! I just keep thinking that the “off” season must be coming soon!! Take a deep breath, and try to enjoy your many blessings in the midst of the madness 🙂

  3. Ditto! LOL You know what I found to be most helpful this Christmas?! Amazon.com No kidding! I had a huge long list of stuff to buy for people before Christmas (big families…41 people/pets to buy for) and I found about 85% of it on Amazon!! Some stuff had free shipping on it and some didn’t but for $50 I had it ALL shipped to my door and now I’m not nearly as stressed about buying stuff before Christmas as I was a week ago and I saved a whole day of driving around, waiting in long lines, etc. (A day that I can now spend on editing and albums! You know all about that…) 🙂 Good luck, hope that advice helps!
    Erin

  4. TOTALLY understand! We’re trying everything we can do to get all of our weddings finished through the end of October. Just 1 more to go, so it looks like all of the early mornings and late nights are paying off! I’m so ready for a week or so of relaxing down time with family…..in fact, I might just sleep right through Christmas! 🙂 And it sounds like I may be seeing most of your readers out doing last minute shopping this weekend! lol

  5. Hugs to you Jess!! You are certainly not alone 🙂 Take some time for yourself to just be. Relax and enjoy your loved ones. Forget everything else… even if it’s just for a day! You’ll be glad you did. Love to you!

  6. all i have to say is “amen sista!” — if i could ditto what you just wrote I would!! In fact, i think i still have yet to get to writing you back from an email you sent me oh so long ago (which seems like yesterday!)… so my sincere apologies for that, but after reading this blog post… I think you may just understand! 😉

    gosh! i feel so much better reading this & knowing I am not alone — great post. happy, merry holiday to you, Mark & yours!!! 😀

  7. I think Amy Z. is right, you do need a nice relaxing day at the spa. You deserve it, you definitly need to take a day off and not blog, edit, or anything that has to do with working, and go Christmas shopping, enjoy a nice hot Carmel Apple Spice from Starbucks, and be yourself!

    Happpppy Holidays & Merry Christmas Mr. & Mrs. Strickland! 🙂

  8. And then you have crazy clients trying to get orders in at the last minute! 😉

    I did want to tell you that the canvases came today and they look great! So know that you’re appreciated!

    LOVE LOVE LOVE TO YOU!!!

    What’s funny is that this is the first time I have been done with Christmas shopping so early. I did it all online and then only had to run around about 1/2 day getting all the other random stuff. It’s a weird feeling. But I still didn’t do all the stuff I thought I would do, like the Christmas cards and whatnot.

  9. Just try to do one thing at a time! Things will slowly get crossed off your list. Put the music on, it helps! Have a great holiday season:) Caton, Nicole, Chase and Maya:-)

  10. Holy Crap! I was just reading my life story! Seriously! But throw a 17 month old in there, I win!! Ha! I have been TRYING to get my Christmas cards created, but SOMETHING always comes up. So now, they are going to be Happy Freaking New Year cards! Uhhh…when will life ever slow down. Don’t you feel like you work WAY too hard sometimes for WAY too little. I don’t think some clients realize that we have families too and would like to enjoy them during the holidays instead of working through the night to get their images done, posted, ordered, cards created, oh wait, one more set of cards for my other side of the family created, ordered, and Oh I forgot about aunt sally, can you order me 18 more 4x6s of 18 different prints and have them here tomorrow!?!?!?!?!? Goodness….I said I was taking December off….I’m making my deadlines November 1st next year and turning the computer OFF December 1st!!

    Okay, that’s MY vent–sorry to use your blog for it!!

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