If I'm being honest, its been a rough start.
A few days before Christmas I got a call about a great sounding job. It was mortgage related but not processing, not remote but the office is nearby, did NOT require a degree - in fact I had more than the minimum experience they were looking for, and the pay range was comfortable.
I thought I finally had it.
But I missed the initial call - immediately called back. Then followed up again 2 days later, then again on January 2nd.
I was starting to lose hope when they called me back.
After apologizing for the delay (holiday + sickness), I was told they'd already completed a round of interviews and were close to making a decision. But my resume came across her desk so she was basically calling me in case none of their choices worked out.
So maybe there's a chance still. I don't know. I was just really excited about this opportunity.
And I keep hearing there's a hiring surge but I don't know in what field because I am not seeing it.
I also redid my resume. It's a new format of my own devising. Essentially I have opened with my summary, then detailed my experience followed by a listing of all of my previous employment.
It was just so repetitive to put the same thing under each job description. How many ways can you describe processing loans?
I've also updated my LinkedIn profile with my new boring brown hair.
I look like the before in a makeover.
Since we didn't remove the purple, we just colored on top of it, the purple is already coming through. I still feel dowdy, but even my hair is rejecting the brown and that does make me feel a little better.
I've been experimenting with curlers too. My new cut is sort of designed for a bit of wavy curl but I was never good at curling my own hair. I have seen these heatless curlers all over social media so I thought I would give them a try. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it but once you do it is pretty easy. I didn't sleep in them, just left them in for a few hours.
The first time turned out too poofy - using just the waves - so I thought I would try again and mix the two styles.
It was both an astonishing success and a colossal failure.
Success because it definitely curled my hair. Failure because...well...I'll just show you...
I cried I was laughing so hard. And I immediately wet my hair and started over, this time just blow drying and following up with a curling wand/straightener.
The redo was definitely better but I still need practice. And I'm returning those curlers. Obviously they work a little too well on my hair.
All the Chrismukkah is put away. Ok not exactly all - I still have a little outside and I haven't removed the garland from the dining room chandelier but I haven't forgotten about it I just haven't wanted to do it yet.
I'm terrible at taking photos along the way. I had this whole little series planned out that I was going to show you step by step of how I organize.
But I forgot to take the photos so I will just have to try to describe it in words for you.
After I bring all the decor into one central location - in my case, the dining room - I started to sort. I don't like to decorate exactly the same every year - I use all the same supplies, they just get placed differently, with some exceptions.
So I started with those.
My Putz houses all got grouped together as did the Christmas village. My Christmas pop culture gets grouped together with the Chanukkah stuff because it all goes in the movie room. Kitchen towels get grouped with my gingerbread decor because obviously that goes in the kitchen.
I put the tree skirts all in a pile (because I have 3 trees inside), stockings and hangers in another. I also put all my bottle brush trees together - an no, I do not have enough. Then the rest gets sorted however feels right to me in the moment.
The key to sorting is not to sort how someone else tells you it should be done. If you need to use it as a starting point, then by all means do it. But ultimately you need to sort in a way that makes sense to you.
This is where I should also confess that I have a Chrismukkah closet. It's one of the reasons I micro sort everything instead of shoving it all in a box.
When I started packing it all back in this year, I began with the largest items. My new kitchen Christmas tree - I could have taken it apart but I have the room to store it in one piece so why not? My little pink tree that also goes in the kitchen, the small white countertop tree for the guest bath, my pair of light up birch trees, and my rainbow trees all get put in first.
I also put all the Christmas china in their storage boxes and everything fits neatly on one shelf.
Next I needed to start taking down the trees because I bought these ornament storage boxes last year and they take up a lot of room. I love the ease of seeing all my ornaments at once if I want though so they were a good buy for me.
When I am putting the ornaments away, I like to organize by color or style. This works best for me partly because I have three themed trees. The pencil tree in the front entry is pastels - pinks, blues, and mint greens with some glitter balls thrown in. The movie room tree is our Chrismukkah tree so it is blue and silver with some white added. And the living room tree is my memory tree. It's filled with the ornaments I've collected over the years and nothing about it matches.
I love it.
Once I have all the ornaments sorted and boxed I was able to start Tetrising everything back into the closet.
See for yourself...
I need a bigger closet.
Here's the thing, in Texas especially it is not a good idea to store your holiday decor in the garage or attic if you can help it. The extreme heat can be really bad for some decor items. So I try to keep as much as I can inside.
My trees, lights, and any outside decor go outside in the garage, as does my Rudolph train set. It's just too bulky.
Pro tip: remove all batteries prior to storing your decor. I put mine in a ziploc and then I put it in the Fall closet (yes I have a fall closet too) so I have batteries for all of those items when I need them.
I don't know how much help that was.
So now my house is "mostly" back in order. Everything looks barren and dull. Luckily we have the cruise coming up to look forward to and by the time we get back I'm sure I'll love the house again.
Now if you will excuse me, I need to go curl my hair.