Yup

Christmas Eve is my favorite holiday by far and this year only solidified it's spot on top of my 'favorite holiday' list. I love being able to drive down to see my family after work (well, the actual drive was a team effort). It's wonderful to not have to drop several hundred dollars and try to plan several months in advance. It was fun to introduce Mr.Wonderful to my extended family. He was a hit and fit right in. I knew he would be well received, everyone he encounters loves him.
We hit the road back to Seattle around 9pm on the 24th and got home around 1am. Mr. Wonderful--er "Santa"-- had one more gift for me and I opened it here. We were so excited about our new toys and stayed up until 3ish playing!
While I wouldn't trade playing with Christmas toys in the wee hours of the morning for the world, waking up Christmas day for work was no easy task! I worked 5 of the next 6 days, and needless to say I'm pooped. Work has been particularly exhausting lately and I worry that I'm starting to feel burnt out. Our patient acuity has been insanely high over the past couple of months and it just creates a very tense working environment. I am grateful for the next week, as I don't work again until Thursday! Then I'll work a couple of long stretches again, then will seek reprieve in LA! We found some super cheap tickets on Southwest awhile ago, and said "why not?" So January 14th (coincidentally, the 6-month mark...), we'll escape the dreary, cold, wet winter here and embrace a warm and hopefully sunny southern California, where I am sure that I was meant to live in the first place.

No crazy exciting things to report. I could go on and on about work, but it's frowned upon. I need to find an outlet for all that tension and stuff... it's driving me nutty! I am starting to dislike working long stretches of days in a row because I don't have time or energy to think about anything BESIDES work or do anything but recover from the day. It thwarts my cardiovascular comeback, it drains me of motivation to do anything fun. I love my job, I promise.. but too much of a good thing is never a good idea. I need to figure out a better way to schedule myself.
Hopefully I can figure that out in the next week and also reflect on the past YEAR and all its goodness and lessons learned.