Merry Christmas !!!

Well, it's Christmas Day, 2008. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. It's definitely been a challenging year and, to be honest, I'm glad it's almost over ! I'm looking forward to a new start in 2009

One of the biggest challenges I had to face this year was with my career. After 8 years on the job, I got laid off in September. The mortgage company I worked for decided to close all of its retail offices throughout the nation, giving us 48 hours' notice. It was definitely a very trying time for me, but I kept my faith and pressed forward. Thankfully, everything came together and I now work for a different company with the same people I worked with at my old job.

Despite that, I have much to be thankful for. I am grateful to have a roof over my head, a warm bed and food on the table. More importantly, I am glad to be healthy and to have my daughter in my life. I really don't know what I would do without her. Children just have a way of putting things into perspective for you -- and my daughter does that all the time for me.

Anyway, it's almost 4 in the morning on Christmas Day. Mikayla and I decided to open our gifts at 2 this morning. Money is tight this year, so I couldn't splurge on her the way I normally do at Christmas. I still managed to get her several gifts and was glad that she loved everything. I'm glad she understood why I could not get her anything extravagant this year. I am very lucky that my child is not one to insist on keeping up with the joneses and does not demand that everything come with a designer label. I guess Mama taught her well. ~LOL~

We are just getting to bed now and plan to put a gingerbread house together later on. For some strange reason, I decided to visit this blog and delete all of my old entries (there were only four) and start over. I hope to keep up with this in 2009. Wish me luck with that. Merry Christmas !!!!