"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together by good intentions." Augustine Burroughs, Magical Thinking
I had good intentions, but I guess I ran out of steam. And as far as excuses go, I got sick, and I fell. Twice. I guess the "sick" part was just a bad cold, but I stayed home from work two days (worked from home, though), and I still have a lingering cough that I'm trying to get rid of.
Tuesday morning I fell in the parking lot at work, slipped on the ice and fell to my knees, caught myself with the palm of my right hand, and then actually hit my face on the ground! I don't think I've ever done that before. My knee is bruised, my hand is bruised, my LIP is bruised, and I have a little scrape on my cheek. It took me awhile to stop shaking from that one, but I didn't tear my clothes or get especially dirty or anything, and I didn't chip a tooth or break my nose or any other bones, so I considered myself lucky.
And then, to add insult to injury, when I was getting the mail at home that same night, I slipped AGAIN, and this time fell on my butt. The ice I fell on that time was melting ice, so I also got soaked. And caught myself with my left hand this time, so I bruised that palm, too.
The good part was, though, that my boss had told us that if we didn't have any deadlines pressing, and didn't have any particular reason to come in, that we could work from home, or just take the day off. We had originally planned to work a half day anyway. So I took the day off and spent it wrapping gifts and making party mix to give to my dad and brother, and Bob's dad, as part of their Christmas gifts.
The one thing that I did stick to pretty well was my "handcrafted Christmas," i.e., giving people things that were consumable, such as soap and food, and not a lot else. Normally when I make stuff for Christmas gifts, I start worrying and feeling guilty, and end up buying things anyway, but this year, I really didn't. Everyone got soap--the girls (mothers, sisters, aunts, nieces) got soap, candles and tea, and the guys (fathers, brothers) got soap and party mix. Boyfriends got Starbucks gift sets with coffee cups and cookies.
So all in all, it worked out pretty well.
Barb is coming over today to exchange gifts and then go out to lunch (or maybe the other way around, depending on how hungry we are), so I'm heading upstairs to shower and dress.
