Merry Belated Holidays… I mean is that even a thing?!? Mine were amazing! Got to spend a lot of time with my family which is always a good thing.

Like most people I waited until the LAST minute to get ready. (At least I’d like to say most people because it makes me feel less like a Holiday loser)

This is not new for me but this year was by far the latest I have waited. This year was the perfect storm of procrastination.

First, my work has been brutal since the beginning of December. 60 hour work weeks and the Holiday are not a good combination. I absolutely love my job and expect ebbs and flows of the hours but it just was poor timing. Plus I could have planned better. Isn’t that always the case?!

Second, the combo of long hours and stress have made me susceptible to the cold from HELL. I’m not sure how I weigh the same when I’ve imagined the number ounces of pure snot and coughed up junk that have come out of my body the last 3 weeks? Yes I know not the best visual but hey pure truth. Plus I’m not talking about any of my health things that I’ve wrote about in the past. So give yourself a high five and consider yourself lucky.

So feeling sick and working crazy hours I came into Christmas Eve with 0 presents and not even a single Christmas decoration up. Yes the epitome of last minute. To be honest I had gotten a few gifts. I had a couple secret Santa work parties. Each of these I had arrived to with my credit card still warm from the super fast shopping spree moments earlier.

So come Christmas Eve I’m in a snot fazed panic. I needed to buy food for Christmas dinner, get gifts, clean, and set up decorations in less than 8 hours. All the while feeling like I couldn’t breathe and could sleep for a full day.

I delegated out the grocery buying with the Shipt app. If you hate grocery shopping like I do (I’ve mentioned before my panic moments in there), then this is the app for you. You order from your local grocery store and they deliver. It is amazing!

I cleaned my house quickly (I would not eat off the floors with the level of cleaning I did but it was a noticeable clean) and headed to the store to get gifts. I headed to Target, approximately 10 minutes before they closed.

I walked in on a mission. Think “Supermarket Sweep” style. I had some of my nieces and nephews to buy for and wanted to find the perfect gifts.

This was made more difficult by the sound of “Target is closing in 7 minutes. Please make your final selections and head to the checkout.”

I could feel the pressure ringing in my ears. So I hurriedly went to the aisles and got the gifts I knew they would be excited about. As I threw the last gift in the basket I realized how much I bought. The cart was filled to the brim, overflowing. I thought this is at least $300 worth of stuff... way above my limit!

I rushed to the checkout and as I’m just about to get into the lane I notice something crucial…. a leather jacket in the cart. I hadn’t even hit the clothing aisle!

This is the moment I realized I had THE WRONG CART!!!

In my scatter I had grabbed someone else’s cart. Someone else shopping last minute in the glow of now dimmed lights and the “Target is now closing. Please make your way to the checkout for your final purchases.”

I retraced my steps, found my cart and shouted really loudly “I grabbed the wrong cart! Sorry!”

I did a quick cart swap, grabbed the items I had added and ran to the checkout aisle.

The RIGHT cart

I got home wrapped my gifts and set up my decorations. I was in bed by 2am and ready for my kid by that afternoon! We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family!

So needless to say, I was definitely busy! So busy in fact…. I didn’t have time for dating. But one theme kept coming up to me from my friends… the ex factor! (And of course not the show)

There is something about the holidays that brings back old memories. I had friends that had either reached out to their exes, had their exes reach out to them, or all of a sudden missed that special someone that they haven’t thought about in a long time. What is it about the holidays that makes us think about the ghosts of Christmas past?

Now I would love to say that I’m immune from this. But I think we all know the truth…

The holiday lights, family, and warm feelings I got when I looked at the Christmas tree made me too send a “Merry Christmas!” text to Jack.

What’s funny is Jack and I really didn’t even date during Christmas. There were no Christmas memories or gifts for each other (I actually got him a gift, well actually MADE him a gift when we were dating, but he never got me anything. It was a long-standing joke that he was “making it”…he laughed… I didn’t..,after a while.)

My friends weren’t really caught up on their exes either. The truth was that the holidays really made us focus on those that we have loved and the feeling of being loved.

We all had wanted someone to share the holiday with, someone to help wrap gifts with, and set up decorations. Hell! If I had that someone, I definitely wouldn’t have taken the wrong cart from Target. They would have warned me for sure.

Hey Jill! I’m not sure that your cart looked that crazy! Are you sure you got the right one?

Or even better

Hey Hottie! Wrong cart.

It wasn’t as much about them (the exes) as it was about each of us. It helped me put in perspective what I needed to focus on and be comfortable with in the next year and helped me pin point some specific focuses for my “Dating New Years Resolutions.”

Trust me you’ll want to check back in a week or two for those..