*sigh*

The week before Christmas has arrived. My to-do list (which should be getting shorter, not longer) hangs over my head and I'm stuck at work until Wednesday so there really isn't much I can do about it. And then we had a really crappy night at work on Friday. And then I hit a really bad car accident on my way home--which left me with no alternative but to slowly work my way through traffic. I got home three hours late that night. Thinking the worst was behind me, I went to bed.

Wrong.

I woke up horribly ill two hours later and spent the remainder of my night...well, I won't go into details...

I should have seen it coming. I tend to think that I am capable to do anything and everything that I want to do and I think little of the effect it has on my body. I think my body was in need of a miserable 24 hours if for no other reason than to get me right where I needed to be--flat on my back in bed.

S had to go into work that morning. I called into work telling them I wouldn't be there. My incredible sister and nieces came to my rescue as they took Bean for the better part of the day allowing me the most wonderful and needed gift of rest. I laid in bed thinking of all of the plans I had made for the upcoming week. And I no longer cared. All I wanted to do was sleep and get better.

Thankfully it was a fast moving bug/food poisoning incident (I still have no clue what caused this and probably won't unless Bean or S get sick as well) and I am currently feeling 100% better than I did this time yesterday.

But one thing hasn't changed and that is that I realized it simply isn't important if not all of the gifts are "cover of a magazine"-worthily-wrapped. I probably won't get all of my cards mailed this year but instead will focus on getting them to the ones who will care the most--my family (who also won't care if they don't get them until after Christmas.) Those sugar cookies aren't going to get baked. But then I'm pretty sure snowflake and snowmen cookies are still welcome in January so I'll just do it then. Things are okay as they are and I am most excited to spend time with my family this upcoming weekend. And they won't care a bit that I haven't had time to bring homemade gingerbread to the party.

So, albeit a harsh way to remind me to slow down, getting sick really couldn't have come at a better time.

And I was able to spend a few hours resting this morning while Bean brought me a dozen of her favorite books. We snuggled together on the couch by the Christmas Tree. It was Awesome.