tis the season

The week before Thanksgiving was probably the low point of my time in LCV thus far. I was burned out of work, cohabitation, and just being in a place that was the polar opposite of my life last year. After a really rough day at work, in the heat of the moment, I woke up at 4:30am and decided to go home a day early for Thanksgiving. What a good choice that was. Over break I was able to watch infinite amounts of trashy TV, eat some gourmet food, spend time with my family and catch up with old friends...without any guilt! Although I wasn't ready to come back to MN, I was feeling much better about my situation and ready to tackle whatever came my way.

Although there are a lot of things I really hate about my job, this week has kind of put everything in perspective. The after school program is off an running...so seeing the kids twice a week has been a joy. I've been signing up residents all week for Toys for Tots...so it has been awesome seeing all the kids who will now have toys (even if they aren't necessarily for Christmas in most cases). We also did move ins this week and we had a family come straight from shelter...so it was really exciting to hand them the keys and give them a place to call home...just in time to beat the snow that came this week! A volunteer also donated a bunch of household things to this family so they could start their new life a little more comfortably. I feel like this week I finally felt needed. I was actually doing work that made a difference...and as selfish as that sounds...it felt really good.

So now we just need an epic dumping of snow on the ground...and the holidays will be in full swing! We are taking our Imani Christmas card pictures this week...so get excited...the blog will be updated later this week with all of our adorable pictures and updates