The week between Christmas and New Year's is always tough in the news business. Between vacations and lack of anything happening, it can easily turn into the longest week of the year, especially if your stress-to-sleep ratio is out of wack like mine has been. In fact, I've been in a kind of funk for the past two weeks it feels like.

It all started when we had to miss my aunt's annual Christmas party and then Christmas with my grandparents because Alexis got a terrible stomach bug. To make it worse, we sent her to stay with my mom because she was out on winter break so daddy and I wouldn't have to miss work. Needless to say I was not focused on work those three days. Other than getting a touch of the bug myself, Christmas came and went pretty uneventfully (more on that in a post next week), but this past week has been bad. Bedtime has been a struggle all week, I haven't slept well, and work has been beyond stressful for a handful of reasons.

All of these things have combined to create an end-of-year funk I'm having a hard time breaking out of. I feel like I'm not being a good mom, wife, friend, or daughter right now, and all I want to do is burrow into the covers on my bed and sleep until I feel like me again. But of course I won't. Instead I'll do the laundry that's been piling up, organize all the Christmas gifts Alexis got that are strewn from one end of my house to the other, and take down our decorations before the new year. And while nearly everyone else I know will be out celebrating the end of 2016, I think I'll watch a movie with my husband and go to bed early. If nothing else, I'll start off 2017 with a good night's sleep.

Happy New Year.