Back to work this week after a relaxing Thanksgiving vacation. We spent most of the first two days on the beach at Naples and Marco Island, swimming, reading, and collecting seashells. Saturday was cooler--quite chilly for Florida, in fact--but we had already planned to spend that day shopping so we didn't mind. We managed to get a bit of our Christmas shopping done, and I don't think we thought about work once! What a relief! Now, if only I could have the hotel's hot tub in my backyard...

Been busy with holiday planning this week. I decided to volunteer to organize my library's participation in a County Holiday Project, so we arranged to adopt a family with four kids for Christmas. We get to provide each child with two presents, and we're going to include a Publix gift certificate for the mom as well. Morale has been a little low at work lately--we've been shortstaffed for a while now, as well as dealing with various policy changes and edicts that seem designed to make our work lives harder--so I thought that this project might be one way to raise people's spirits a bit as well as doing something good for the community.

Life has been harder on other fronts lately, as I'm still battling what now seems to be chronic sinus problems rather than allergies. Without decongestants, I can't breathe through my nose at all, and experience a lot of discomfort from sinus pressure/swelling as well. So, in the short term at least, I have a choice between dealing with constant unbearable symptoms, or drugging myself up with OTC products 24 hours a day. Boy is my doctor going to get an earful when I finally get to his office in January!