Very grateful

Yes, I'm gonna gloat a bit.  Right now, I'm sitting here enjoying a wonderful lunch prepared by the most awesome Broccoli.  Realizing that I've pretty much run myself ragged this week, he was nice enough to drop by a delicious, home-made meal while I'm trying to wrap Christmas presents and clean up some loose ends here at home.

This has been one of the hardest weeks I've ever faced.  My Grandma went back into the hospital after getting extremely sick from this last bout of chemo late Sunday night.  Luckily, I was able to work obscure hours in order to be able to spend time with her and help out as necessary.  My Bro came to spend the first part of the week with me so that he could also visit my Grandma and was met with an apartment with less than plentiful resources.  My plan was to grocery shop last Sunday when we had snow and I decided not to venture out since I knew the stores would be nuts.   Being the clever guy that he is, he was able to piece together a few meals from my cabinets when he was hungry and we were able to enjoy a great dinner with my Grandma and Mom at the hospital on Tuesday night.

To top it off, it was the busiest week of the year at work for me with preparing for our Christmas party, handling our employee appreciation for 5+ year employees (this is our first major milestone as a company since we were only formed in late 2004), completing the retro increases we were promised and then explaining the calculation to every employee that called for clarification and then dealing with other miscellaneous issues that popped up.  I was completely exhausted when I finally was able to make my way home at night.
In the back of my mind, I was also bothered the fact that I hadn't really started Christmas shopping and knew that this weekend was probably going to fill up fast with other priorities, so by Thursday, I was in full freak out/overload mode.  Somehow, Broccoli pulled me out of it and got my head straight so that I could "schedule" and plan for nearly everything that needed to get done.
Amazingly enough, I was able to run around like crazy yesterday and not only finish my Christmas shopping but also my Mom's (she's been at the hospital pretty much non-stop since Sunday night), re-stock my pantry and fridge and then spend the rest of the evening with my Grandma.  It didn't take long for me to fall asleep when I finally decided to go to bed.

Through all of this, I'm realizing how very grateful I am for the little things.  The idea that someone (or a few someones) is thinking about me and trying to lighten my load and ease my mind a bit is amazing.  In spite of how busy others are, it's nice to know that I have surrounded myself with people that do look out for me and are willing to do what they can to help out.  While the circumstances stink, this Christmas season is a special one.