Christmas Catch Up

Well, it's officially now the silly season.  I enjoy seeing people spill out of Christmas office parties in Central London looking merry and spreading festive cheer. The shop has become crazy busy this week, which is a very good thing, but means that I've been very preoccupied getting as much stock into it as possible. It's amazing how many people come into the shop on a daily basis, we're kind of running out of stock of some things and finding it hard to replenish stocks of other things due to the speed with which things are being sold.  Obviously, this is all good and I'm happy that so many people are doing at least some of their Christmas shopping with us.

Last night, was our shop Christmas meal out.  We have a limited budget for eating out in Central London and last year we went over a bit, so I tried to make sure I booked somewhere that was well within budget.  We just about managed to stay within the budget, but the Manager and I split the bill for drinks between us in order to do so. I don't mind too much, as it's a way of thanking everyone for their hard work and I think we all had a pleasant evening. There were just 9 of us this year, as opposed to the 14 or so that came last year, but this kind of reflects the fact that we just don't have as many volunteers at the moment, as several volunteers have drifted off over the year, which is to be expected in many ways and is, of course, their prerogative.

I've decided that next year, I really do need to get a better work/life balance going on.  There have been too many nights this year when I've got home at 8.30pm or 9pm, which is way too late.  I'm going to try to resolve to get out of there by 6.30pm each night, so I should be home by 8pm at the very latest. I don't think that many other managers in our group will be staying so late every night, so why should we.  My manager agrees thankfully, so after all the festivities are over, we are hoping to do something about it.

Today, is my only full day off this week.  I worked on Monday afternoon/all day Tuesday, went in late yesterday for the meal and am going in late on Friday as our intern is leaving this week, then I am working all weekend. As a consequence, I'm trying to make the most of today and trying to get the things left on my list done and dusted.

This morning I wrote most of our Christmas cards.  I just need to complete the addresses on the envelopes of the ones I'm posting, buy some stamps and send them off.  Then I need to hang some chocolates on the Christmas tree, attach some small lights to the door wreath and then do a bit more gift wrapping.

Tonight, we are heading out to the mall for one last Christmas shopping outing.  I just need to buy a couple of cards for family members and OH's trainers and I'm done.  OH, however, has a bit of shopping still to do, so our outing will mainly be for him to complete his shopping. We will probably eat out too, which saves me cooking.

I'm feeling a bit tired today, as I woke up at 5am feeling cold and couldn't get back to sleep. I may  have a nap this afternoon or watch a Christmas movie on TV and just chill. There's always tomorrow for everything else and I do need to spend some time relaxing when I'm not at work.

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?