Did You Have A Holiday Meltdown?

December came upon me this year; not as a walk through the park, not a pleasant trot along a pathway...but as a full gallop, jumping over high hurdles on a steep and craggy hill. Here's a partial list of the aforementioned hurdles:

• We received some not-so-good news from the oncologist (stressful, but manageable)
• Discovery of a purchase our late father made - and subsequently forgot about - in the 1950s sent my siblings and me on a journey with the Courts (as if I don't get enough court-time fun at work)
• My day-job office moved its location after 14 years to an office park 10 miles further north, doubling my commute (adding to my already high stress levels)
• Note to the Feds: The search continues. I did NOT find Jimmy Hoffa stuffed away in my old office
• Tom finished installing the new countertops in the kitchen, then had to move all the furniture out of the kitchen to finish the trim moldings and baseboards
• which meant my computer was not accessible during this time
• which also meant I had boxes of stuff packed away at my office and boxes of stuff packed away at home (almost hair-ripping screaming-meemies)
• My day-job work is time-sensitive, and several cases had briefs, petitions, and motions all due within days of each other
• which meant I had to file and/or process these lengthy documents while packing and unpacking my essentials during the move (didn't have to rip my hair out. It began to fall out by itself)
• That naughty little Mexican boy (the one our weather forecasters call "El Niño") gave us hot, humid weather - a true feeling of Christmas in July
• which meant I came home to a hot, humid house after a 40-minute commute to work, a "hit-the-floor-running" workday, then an hour commute home
• Tom finally agreed to turn the A/C on 12/22. Our furnishings needed time to dry out before family came for dinner on Christmas Day
• We had an issue with the pharmacy. During the day on Christmas Eve, Tom had to go way out to the UPS facility in east Tampa to get his meds.
• We both worked like a pair of whirling Dervishes cleaning the house, washing several loads of laundry, and sweeping up construction dust.

The festive sense of the season was not lost in all this stress. I managed to decorate the tree, set up part of my old English villages, and "pixilate" the yard with a strand of lights hurled at the jasmine minima.

I held the reins of my steed tightly during all these issues and actions, until Tom reminded me for the third time that the load in the dryer needed to come out so the load in the washer could be loaded into the dryer.
I lost control, threw my sopping wet dish rag across the room, and stomped into the laundry room to tend to that low hurdle. Those little hurdles always trip us up, don't they?

At the Christmas Eve church service (which was fraught with screaming babies - adding yet MORE stress to my already strained nerves), my friend confided with me she'd had her annual holiday meltdown. I felt comforted knowing that other people, even people I love, have meltdowns, too. We seem to hold all the tension inside, then a tiny spark makes us explode into a mini-China syndrome that drills all the way through the core of the earth.

What about you? Did you have a holiday meltdown you'd like to share?
Let's hold a "can you top this" meltdown contest. The winner gets to drink a glass of eggnog...guilt-free!

Wishing you many blessings in 2016!