Saturday, December 31, 2022

Final Recap of 2022 Goals

Another year is drawing to a close.  It never fails; they seem to fly right by.  Of course, with the end of another year... brings another recap of how my goals turned out.  This year, I think that I did pretty well with them overall.

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I always love looking back at how the year went.  Making goals and seeing how I did is something that I've always enjoyed doing.  And tt's been a tradition here on my blog ever since I started!  (You can read my past Disney goal posts at the following links: 2014 goals2014 recap2015 goals2015 recap, 2016 goals, 2016 recap2017 goals2019 goals2019 recap2020 goals2020 recap2021 goals and 2021 recap.)

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I went into 2022 optimistic about how they'd go.  And for the most part, I was able to achieve quite a few of them.  Here are my my 2022 goals if you need a reminder:

Melissa's Blog and Disney Goals for 2022

1.) Go to Walt Disney World for the 50th Anniversary
2.) Get Two Puppies
3.) Work on My Scrapbooks
4.) Decorate the House for the Holidays
5.) Celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary
6.) Make Disney Home Decor for the House
7.) Use My New Disney Planners and Journals
8.) Make Disney Decor for the Holidays
9.) Make Disney Accessories
10.) Have Disney Movie Nights
11.) Have Disney Board Game Nights
12.) Disneybound/Themed Outfit Challenge
13.) Have a Disney Themed Party
14.) Take an Online Class
15.) Design an Imagineering Project
16.) Read Disney Books
17.) Paint Disney Art
18.) Decorate House with Disney Touches
19.) Launch My Clothing Line
20.) Launch Our Home Decor Business
21.) Create New Products for Happily Ever Hatter
22.) Be More Creative in the Kitchen

So, without further ado, let's jump in and see how I did!

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Melissa's Blog and Disney Goals for 2022

1.) Go to Walt Disney World for the 50th Anniversary

I just squeaked by with this one.  Eliot and I are literally at the Magic Kingdom today, and this is the first time we've been able to be at Walt Disney World for the 50th!

2.) Get Two Puppies

This didn't pan out this year... but I'm hopeful for next year!

3.) Work on My Scrapbooks

I didn't even have space to attempt this.  Maybe next year!

4.) Decorate the House for the Holidays

We didn't get the inside of the house decorated.  But Eliot and I were able to get quite a few of our decorations up outside in our front yard and on our porch for Christmas.

5.) Celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary

This didn't exactly go as planned since we cancelled our 10th anniversary trip to Walt Disney World and then Eliot was very sick on our actual anniversary.  But we've made up for it since then and we still have a lot of time to celebrate this entire year!

6.) Make Disney Home Decor for the House

I've been working on a few personal projects.  I don't think that I've posted about any of them on my blog, but I'll definitely be trying to share more of them when I have time to!

7.) Use My New Disney Planners and Journals

This is a disaster and I haven't bought anything for next year.  I've gotten really good at using my computer and my phone but I've totally failed at using a physical planner.

8.) Make Disney Decor for the Holidays

Just like the home decor, I've been making stuff behind the scenes.

9.) Make Disney Accessories

I did make myself a few things this year... no where near what I'd love to.  But I did make myself a few hair clips and brooch pins from our Happily Ever Hatter supplies.

10.) Have Disney Movie Nights

Ok, so I didn't have formal "movie nights" but I did watch a bunch of movies.  I've realized that Eliot isn't home when I want to do many of these things, so a girl's gotta do what a girl's got to do.  I was my own movie date with my couch and the donkeys.

11.) Have Disney Board Game Nights

Like the movie nights, we didn't have game nights.  Although, Eliot and I did go over to my cousin's house to have game night.  They just weren't Disney games.

12.) Disneybound/Themed Outfit Challenge

This is another disaster.  I have so many clothes and I never seem to wear them.  I did make more of an effort this year though... Hopefully I can get our master bedroom straightened out this winter so I can easily get into my outfits, accessories and jewelry!

13.) Have a Disney Themed Party

We still really aren't in any shape to host a party, but hopefully that will change sooner than later.  (Right now, our house looks more like a workshop than a house...)

14.) Take an Online Class

I did take a few online classes this year.  They aren't the super exciting creative ones that make sense to share a lot about here on my blog... but I did enjoy them.  Maybe I'll take some crafty classes next year!

15.) Design an Imagineering Project

I didn't even think of this... I'd love to design something though!

16.) Read Disney Books

I did finally read a book this year!  And when I started it, I devoured it in like 2-3 days.  I want to read it again, and dive into a few of my other Disney books.  I have a ton!

17.) Paint Disney Art

I didn't even think of this either... although I have a bunch of great ideas!

18.) Decorate House with Disney Touches

I'm slowly working on this... at pretty much a snail's pace.  But it's slowly happening!

19.) Launch My Clothing Line

Blah, this is just getting embarrassing at this point.  I really need to get this done!

20.) Launch Our Home Decor Business

Oie... let's be real with this one.  Eliot and I can't seem to agree on a starting point for this business.  He has ideas, I have ideas and we haven't been able to pick a direction to go in.  I think that I finally found the perfect project that combines both of our ideas though... so I'm hoping that I can get something drafted out in the coming months!

21.) Create New Products for Happily Ever Hatter

I was able to make some new products in the form of mouse ears.  It wasn't exactly what I had in mind at the beginning of the year... but I am making some progress towards that with gathering supplies.  I also thought of many ideas for even more new products this year... so there's a lot happening behind the scenes!

22.) Be More Creative in the Kitchen

I was definitely a bit more adventurous in the kitchen.  I haven't really played around with baking and desserts much, but I have cooked more.  Hopefully I can keep making progress with this next year!  I love experimenting!

And there you have it!  Overall, 12 out of 22 isn't awful.  It's not as great as I wanted to do, but I definitely way better than the 6 out of 20 that I got done last year.

I also continued to do the seasonal bucket lists that I started last year.  I've made a lot of progress on those.  So if you include all of those, I've gotten a ton of goals done this year.  And this is the first year that I actually felt like I made decent headway on not only my goals, but with living the type of year creatively that I want to.

Finally, I also made sure to really focus my energy towards my 2022 Word of the Year: BALANCE.  I've been struggling with trying to balance our work lives and our business lives.  This year, I really focused on it, and for the first time since we started our Etsy shops, I actually feel like Eliot and I had some balance in our lives. 

I didn't stress out when I didn't get blog posts done on time.  I didn't stress about orders that were late.  (Ok- so I did a little, but I also acknowledged that I'm a human and that I can only do so much.)  Eliot and I took time to enjoy each season.  We took time to enjoy each other's company.  And I really feel like I was fulfilled in my personal life... which is something that I've struggled with for years.

So overall, 2022 was a wonderful year.  I definitely feel life I'm going down the pathway that I'd like to be heading in.  Thank you 2022 for the memories and love.  °o°

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Finalizing Our Plans

Ooh goodness... when it rains it pours.  

I don't have too much time to fill you in on all of the details... but the short version is that this morning Eliot and I had to scramble to rebook our flights.  We were scheduled to fly out of Portland Friday afternoon with Southwest.  And unless you've been living under a rock for the past few days, I'm sure that you've heard about the total hot mess express that Southwest currently is.  Anyways... 

We were going to wait it out, but the more I read about the disaster and the domino effect, the more confidence I lost.  I finally told Eliot this morning before we were even out of bed... then we spent the next hour laying in bed looking for alternatives.

Booking a flight two days before you're supposed to take it is crazy... especially when thousands of other flights have been cancelled.  We were looking at prices upwards of $600 to $1000 a person and things were looking bleak.  We looked from Portland to Providence, RI.  Thankfully, after I was getting really discouraged, Eliot found a flight from Portsmouth, NH through Allegiant that wasn't crazy expensive.

So now Eliot and I are flying through Allegiant from Portsmouth down to the Sanford Orlando airport.  We have never flown with Allegiant, we have never flown out of Portsmouth, and we've never flown into Sanford.  But when Eliot told one of his work colleagues about his morning, his coworker said he's flown this route through Allegiant before and he's had great experiences.  Hopefully we'll have a great one too!

Thankfully, the rest of our travel plans are all falling into place.  We've got a bunch of mouse ear samples almost finished so we can take photos of a few new designs.  I also spent a little bit of time this afternoon getting our daily itinerary written down so it will be easier to keep track of our reservations, park plans, race plans and everything else.  It's going to be a very busy two weeks since we've got a lot of fun stuff planned!

So that's my quick travel plan update!  Hopefully everything else goes smoothly!!!  °o°

These photos are from our Walt Disney World trip confirmation and emails.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Our 2022 Christmas

Well, this weekend didn't quite go as planned.  I had visions of sugar plums dancing in my head and what we ended up with was a lump of coal.  But, you make the most of what you've got to work with, and I'm still thankful for what we did have- each other.

I try to stick to the positive but there's really no sugarcoating it.  Mom and Dad were still sick with the flu and still coughing a lot.  They didn't have time (or energy) to go shopping.  That meant there were no groceries, no presents... nothing.  (Jeremy was able to pick up a few things last minute so we had food to eat on Christmas Day.)

The hardest part of the weekend was that Nana was also still really sick.  While she was able to be released from the hospital last Thursday so she could be home for Christmas, she had been in the hospital for 10 days.  Thus, she was incredibly weak and could barely move.  Dad, Jeremy, Eliot and I all tried to move her from the chair to her hospital bed, but we couldn't do it.  Thankfully, Dad had just rented a lift devise... otherwise, I don't know what we would have done.

Eliot, Jeremy and I weren't at all worried about the superficial stuff, but when we were actually home, it just made the whole situation more depressing.  There was no tree with sparkling Christmas lights.  No decorations, other than a few centerpieces sent as gifts.  Christmas morning, there were no presents from Santa waiting for us on the couch.  There weren't any stockings laid over the couch or chairs on Christmas Eve and filled with goodies the next morning.  No, this Christmas was minimal.

Then, if all that wasn't depressing enough, the weekend was capped off with me getting food poisoning the day after Christmas... for the second year in a row.

But there were some good moments too.

We all slept in really late so we missed the original airing of the Disney Christmas Parade, but we were able to catch the replay of it over on Freeform from 12:00-2:00.

Mom loved the Bradford Exchange Disney Christmas Tree decoration Jeremy got her.

Nana was awake and talking with us for most of the day.  When she wasn't, she was half asleep and humming.  I wasn't sure what was happening at first, but at one point it appeared that she was humming Deck the Halls.  She seemed content just to be there.

Jeremy got Eliot and me a few gifts that he had me suggest to him over Black Friday weekend.  He got me three pairs of the Baublebar Disney earrings that I really wanted and he got Eliot the giant SJ Sharkie plush that we'd seen back in October while we were at the Sharks store.  (Both of these were on sale Black Friday weekend too!)

Santa brought the donkeys a mini air hockey table- that he might have seen at the TJ Maxx in Augusta while driving home.  (Yup, we buy the donkeys Christmas presents.)

Mom loved the Mickey and Minnie door greeters that Eliot and I got her.  They are both dressed in fancy winter outfits in white and red, so they'll be good to display for quite a while- through Christmas, winter and Valentine's Day!

Jeremy delivered my belated birthday present- a Mickey Ghost Loungefly crossbody bag that was sold out everywhere, but magically came back in stock over Black Friday when they found a few extras at the warehouse!  

Dad loved his new inflatables from Eliot and me.  He was excited about the large Mickey and he immediately put the tiny inside Airdorable Santa Mickey inflatable up in the living room as soon as he found batteries for him.

Jeremy also bought the Disney Possible Dreams set that I wanted.  It was really the only thing on my short Christmas list to "Santa" that I desperately wanted... especially since it's a retired piece that I've been looking for over a year.  I found one on Mercari and sent the link to Jeremy to ask him to buy it for my gift (since Mom and Dad don't have Mercari), and a few minutes after texting it to him, it had sold.  I figured it was him, but I was still so excited to open it Christmas morning!

Jeremy also picked up my new pink peacoat from Torrid that I found available at a store in New Hampshire.  I tried it on and this one fit like it was made for me!

Since Mom and Dad were still pretty sick and weak, the three of us kids tried to help out around the house as much as we could.  I was able to clean some of the dirty dishes in the sink that had piled up.  (Mom was so grateful that she cried.)

While I was sick in bed, Jeremy and Eliot we able to be a huge help to Dad.  They brought in all of Dad's Christmas decorations that he never got to put up outside.

Eliot and Dad went to get my new cell phone at AT&T and then they went to Home Depot to pick up a few more of those Ryobi LED lights that saved Eliot and I when we lost power a week and a half ago.  Now, Dad has one and Jeremy got one too.

Santa also came home from Home Depot with a Disney gift card for both Eliot and me.

I now have an iPhone 14 Plus (at a great deal) instead of an iPhone 7.

And most important, Nana was home with us for Christmas.

Our time in Trenton ended on sour note.  Nana went back to the hospital shortly after Jeremy left yesterday.  We didn't want to send her back, but she had laid in bed most of the day and barely talked after she had been talking a lot Christmas Day.  It was awful having to call the ambulance to pick her up, but we all knew it was for the best.

I wasn't able to handle watching her go (it just upset me and my stomach), so I went back upstairs and laid in bed.  After a good cry, some more rest, and pulling myself together, I went downstairs for the first substantial time all day.  Eliot had driven Dad up to Walmart and they had gotten some food.  I was even able to stomach a little bit of Velveta mac and cheese... and I felt so much better after I ate something.

Eliot and I had already made the commitment to stay up in Trenton last night night due to me being sick all day.  So after eating, Mom, Dad Eliot and I all collapsed in the living room and watched the Blind Side until it finished and it was time for bed.

Today was a bit better.  After sleeping most of yesterday, I woke up right before my 8:00 AM alarm clock ready and raring to go.  I felt so much better.  I showered, had breakfast and started to gather my stuff.  I was weak and very sore, but thankfully Eliot was able to get everything packed up in the truck ok without my help.  We both said goodbye to Mom and Dad and left the house around 11:00 AM.

On the way home, we decided to do some post-Christmas discount shopping.  Eliot technically had to work still, but since the manufacturing plant is closed for the week, he could pretty much work whenever he wanted to.  We stopped at a bunch of places along the way.  We found a bunch of treasures at the TJ Maxx in Ellsworth.

We had to stop at the Lowes in Brewer to pick up a few things that Eliot had ordered on Christmas Day when he found them on sale.  We also found a few other things while browsing in the store, including another gift for Mom and Dad- the snowman Mickey and Minnie door greeters.  Eliot then drove down the street to the Walmart in Brewer to get a drink, and he came back outside with a bunch of stuff.

Our other planned stop was in Augusta.  I wanted to go back to the TJ Maxx since they had a bunch of stuff when we'd stopped on the way north.  We found a few more things that made their way home with us.  Eliot looked around the Home Depot but didn't see anything he needed.  Finally, we both went into Home Goods where we found a few more things on sale.  I was really surprised at how much stuff was still left!

Once we left Augusta, our truck was probably more stuffed than Santa's sleigh.  Eliot couldn't really see out the back, but we were content with our treasures and excited to use them to decorate next year.  We picked up so many wonderful discounted holiday things: lights, kitchen utensils, throw pillows... really too many things to name.

But a few were real gems and I still can't believe our luck.  Eliot found the pack of Disney Hanukkah socks I really wanted.  I'd seen someone selling them online but I've never seen them in store.  He also found Disney Hanukkah pajama pants!  They only had small and large left, but we bought them anyways.  (We figure we can give the smalls to Elissa and keep hunting for another pair for us to both have some.)

My other personal favorite finds were the two Disney Princess Rae Dunn canisters we found.  Both were Cinderella themed with carriages on them.  They were located in the Christmas section with all of the other stuff that was on sale, so the cashiers ended up giving us 50% off those too!  (I'm not sure if they were supposed to discount them... but I'll take it!)  We got two for the price of one and I was happy as a clam.

After all of the stops we made, it took us twice as long to get home as it normally would have, but it was worth it.  We finally just got home around 6:30 PM.  Eliot's at work for a few hours now while I'm going to be watching the Sharks game in a little bit.

Reflecting on the weekend, it was definitely not the best Christmas that we have ever had.  But I'm grateful that we were able to get Nana home for it, and I'm even more thankful that she was coherent enough on Christmas Day to know that we were all there with her.  I'm not sure what's going to happen over the next few days, weeks, months with her health, but there's a very high chance that she won't still be here with us next Christmas.  So this year's greatest gift was having Nana home with us.  °o°

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas!!!  It's my favorite day of the year!!!  

This year looks a little bit different, but that doesn't bother me any.  There's no tree with ornaments and shimmering lights.  The decorations never got out of their storage boxes.  There aren't many presents because we all sent our lists late and Mom and Dad have been too busy to order them to begin with due to recovering from their car accident and fighting pretty bad cases of the flu.  Nana's been in the hospital for a week and a half, and she just got released on Thursday afternoon.

This year, I'm just grateful that they're all still alive after their car accident earlier this month.  We're all home together.  And that's the greatest gift.  The tree, decorations and presents are all the extra wrapping.  The togetherness is what truly matters.

I'm looking forward to a quiet day at home, chilling in our pajamas.  We'll watch the Christmas Parade, provided that we still have power anyways.  We'll cook our Mickey Mouse waffles... again, as long as there's power.  And maybe we'll play some board games.  And I'm sure they'll be plenty of food and treats... and maybe a winter nap.

Wherever you are today, whatever you're doing, I hope you're spending it with the people who are your greatest gift.  Wishing you a day filled with love.

Merry Christmas!!!  °o°

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Christmas Eve 2022

Happy Christmas Eve!!!


As this is posting, Eliot and I are finally driving up to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas this weekend.  It's been a busy week trying to finish and wrap up the rest of our outstanding Etsy orders.  Then, we had another storm yesterday which postponed our drive north.  But we're finally on our way and I am so thankful for a few days away from our house to relax and spend some quality time with my family... especially after the past few weeks since we last saw them.  This year, I'm most grateful that we're all home and safe together... and that's the greatest gift of all. 


I'm not sure exactly what we'll be up to this weekend, but Eliot and I will be in Trenton until sometime Monday afternoon since both Eliot and Jeremy have the day off this year.  I am hoping it involves lots of sitting around talking, decorating cookies, playing games, watching Celtics basketball, watching Christmas movies and relaxing.  But before we dive into our festive fun, I thought I'd leave you with another fun find.  Since yesterday's find was for Hanukkah, today I'm sharing a Christmas ambiance video with images from around all of the theme parks at Walt Disney World!


This is the perfect video to play in the background while you're enjoying festivities with your family!  The music is great and the photos are absolutely stunning!  I know this was definitely something I've enjoyed having on earlier this week while I was working on things!  Plus, it helped get me in the mood for our trip to Walt Disney World!  (Ten days from now this will be Eliot's and my view!  I'm so excited!!!)


I hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of family, friends, love, laughter and good cheer... and may you be smiling from ear to ear!!!

Merry Christmas!!!  °o°

Friday, December 23, 2022

Fun Find: Puppy for Hanukkah Video

Happy Hanukkah and Happy Friday friends!!!  The nights keep passing and the lights keep glowing.  Today, I thought I'd share another fun music video post for my Fun Find Friday.  I went through a DIY wreath video phase earlier this month and now it appears that I'm on a rap music video kick... but I digress.  Let's just roll (the dreidel) with it!

I want to start by saying that it's not always that easy to find fun Hanukkah music.  Eliot and I have a humungous list of Christmas favorites, but Hanukkah songs are harder to come by.  When I first found out about this song, and the accompanying music video, I was so excited!  It debuted two years ago and features Daveed Diggs.  If you're a fan of Hamilton, you'll recognize him as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson.

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Of course, at the time I had just been introduced to Hamilton a few months earlier, so I absolutely had to watch the music video for the new Hanukkah song.  At first, I was a little bit disappointed that Daveed wasn't in it, but then I realized it made more sense to show kids since the song was geared towards them.  Plus, it was great to see people of color and different ethnicities being portrayed as Jewish.

The song and video is definitely geared towards kids, but Eliot and I listen to it every once in a while.  (And it's so catchy that I usually get it stuck in my head afterwards.)  I actually played it earlier this week on the first night of Hanukkah when I gave Eliot his Hanukkah present that I bought both of us- matching Mickey Mouse Hanukkah shirts!

I hope you enjoyed this little nugget of a fun find.  I'm sorry for getting it stuck in your head now.  But you have to agree that it was worth it because the puppy is so cute!

HappHanukkah!!!  °o°

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Winter Solstice and Serenity

Happy Winter Solstice!

I originally had so many ideas for my blog post today.  I thought about doing a big thing for Elsa's Birthday (which is today, Anna's is the Spring Solstice).  I also thought about doing a winter wreath design for Wreath Wednesday.  Or even doing a winter craft...

In the end, the thing that called to me most was something simple.  There's a quiet peace that I'm soaking in today.  Sometimes, I just sit and work in silence throughout the afternoon.  I'm usually listening to music, or having a Hallmark movie playing in the background.  But the past few months, I've enjoyed the quiet.  Living in the countryside has benefits and one of them is the peace.  There's a beautiful serenity to it.

Things have still been pretty crazy personal life wise.  I still have to go back and write about the past few weeks.  But to put it simply, Mom, Dad and Nana were in a bad car accident two weeks ago on their way home from Portland.  They're all ok- for the most part anyways.  But I could be without parents right now.  So keeping things simple and appreciating the small things have been big in my wheelhouse the past two weeks.

So today, I'm working on a few last orders that Eliot and I want to get out before our "Christmas break" and trying to plug away at the blog posts I'm behind in.  (Still about 20 of them... but I'm not big on counting or worrying about them right now.)  I'll probably watch a Christmas movie during my (super late) lunch break in a few minutes, and I already watched a new Hallmark movie earlier while eating breakfast.

And I'll soak in the serenity and peace of the Winter Solstice.  Outside, it's cold and the sun will soon be setting on the shortest day of daylight in the year.  But the sunlight of the golden hour a few minutes ago was shining spectacularly through our front door windows as I paused for a split second to soak it in.  The snow is glistening.  And soon, our Christmas lights in the front yard will be twinkling away- brightening the darkness.

This day makes a lot of people bitter due to the lack of sun and daylight.  But for me, I choose to focus on the peace and serenity.  Happy Winter Solstice.  °o°

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

If You Don't Laugh, You'll Cry

The other day, I told you the story of how Eliot's and my "Hell Week" ended back on Saturday December 17th.  It was a hot mess, but at least I can look back at it now without the complete horror and dread I was filled with while it was happening. 

For anyone who thinks running a small business is easy, lemme fill you in… it’s not all sunshine and roses.  Sure, I can take an afternoon off to sit and do absolutely nothing if I want to.  But I’m also the same person practically glued to our Happily Ever Hatter and Snowblade Creations "to do" lists, messaging customers back (sometimes at 2:00 AM) and keeping track of when everyone's Disney trips are to ensure they get their items in time.  You don't have a fall guy; you are the fall guy and when someone does complain, I'm the one that has to find the resolution.  (Thankfully, we have wonderful customers and the complaints are 1-2 times a year, if that.)

Last Saturday was basically as extreme as it gets, and it was the most stressed out that I've been in regards to our businesses in a long time.  I have been a lot more balanced this year between our personal lives and our business lives.  But that day was something unique.  At the end of it, we made it and it all turned out ok, but I definitely tried to find the humor while we were going through it.  I think I look to humor to get through tough times.  If you don't laugh, you'll cry, right?

So with that, today I wanted to share a few gems that were born out of stress.  You probably saw the first one (below) if you read my other post.  But here's the original (and larger) version before I posted it over on Facebook with all of the fun emojis.

The 12 Questions of Small Business "Hell Week"

Have Eliot and I slept much the past few days… no.

Have we been taking more naps than adults ever should… probably.

Have we consumed way too much caffeine, sugar and who knows what other terrible foods this week… yup!

Were we singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs at 3:00 am a few times this week… um, maybe?

Did I dance around the living room like a psycho while singing at the top of my lungs… ok fine, I did.

Did we lose our power just before 10:30 PM on the WORST night of the ENTIRE year to lose electricity… don’t remind me- it’s too fresh.

Did we put our final orders together by the light of Eliot’s battery powered LED light until the sun finally rose this morning… yuppers!

Did I want to breakdown and cry a few times… mm-hmmm.

But did we keep pushing forward anyways… hell yeah!

Did I basically force Eliot to take this photo before he left… yes.  (See below.)

Will we spend a good portion of this afternoon sleeping… heck yes!

Did Eliot and I survive “Hell Week” and get all of our holiday orders out in the mail in time to arrive for Christmas... I have no idea how, but YES!!!

What I didn't tell you in my other post, was that while Eliot and I were both scrambling around like crazy in the dark, I started singing random lines to Christmas carols, but with the lyrics as whatever I was doing or thinking at the time.  (I should note that this is a normal occurrence around here… much to Eliot’s amusement.)

Now that the complete chaos of last Saturday is over, I thought I'd amuse myself with making my own song to commemorate this uh, “experience".  I actually wrote part of it while we were in the middle of it, but since I didn't want to use up all of the battery on my computer, most of it was written after Eliot took the second round of packages to the post office, but before I fell back into bed for an afternoon nap. 

So now I present to you my latest holiday carol… 

"The Final 12 Hours of Small Business Hell Week 2022"

12 hours without power,

11 times I flipped the light switch out of habit,

10 hours of dread and panic (we slept for 2 hours while it was dark out), 

9 times I tried to ask Alexa something,

8 times I felt nauseous (due to stress),  

times I thought of our upcoming Disney vacation (and how much we earned it this past week!), 

handfuls of trail mix (to sustain me), 

loud swear words, 

deep breaths to calm me,  

3 packages that didn’t make it (to the post office by noon),

2 awesome mail ladies (who told us to go home, pack them up and bring them back over since they’d be there anyways), 

and 1 more USPS holiday shipping deadline we survived!!!

And there you have it, finding the laughter through the pain and stress.  It's absolutely ridiculous, but I would have been a pile of tears otherwise.  Instead, I kept trying to find the humor of the situation.  It resulted in these gems... musings from a sleep deprived, half crazed woman trying to survive the busiest time of year for her small businesses.

I wanted to share them, and it seemed appropriate to let them breathe in the open air of the inter-webs.  Plus, who knows what's in store for our future.  If Eliot and I ever find ourselves in another tight spot, I'll have these silly gems at the ready, poised to bring the laughter when things might look bleak.  Cuz if you don't laugh, you'll cry... °o°