The end is near. There are mere hours left, after which it will all be over. That's right. Over.

Tomorrow signals a return to work and school after two weeks spent sleeping 'til 11:00, wearing pajamas more than half the day, doing as we pleased with what seemed like unlimited time. No matter if I sat down to the puzzle I got for Christmas whenever I felt like it, working until I got bored. There was no guilt. If I played a Wii game until 1:00 a.m., who cared? If I ate more calories in a week than I'd normally consume in a month, who was there to say, "Bad girl!"?

No. One. 

Aside from absolute necessities, like taking the kids to the video game store to spend ill-gotten Christmas money, I haven't left the house dressed like a decent human in two weeks. Tomorrow morning I'll have to get up early, shower, dress respectably, and leave the house for w-o-r-k, after which I'll need to pick my boys up from school.

Real life is set to resume in mere hours.

No More Pajamas …

And I am not happy about it.

The silver lining is my vacation, sick and personal time started all over again as of the beginning of this year. Those numbers will look great after completely maxing out my time off in 2008. Grad school won't be starting up again for a couple more weeks, either, making the return to real life at least a little less jarring. I'll have time to get life back to some semblence of normalcy before the return of homework.

This first week will be tough, not just for the adults, but for the kids, too. My daughter's anticipating final exams that start Wednesday, after putting all that on the back burner for a couple of weeks. My boys don't have big tests coming up, but they're already feeling pretty blue about the end of the fun. I have a feeling we'll all be exhausted come Friday. Exhausted and a little depressed that it's winter and the holidays are behind us. From here on it's a long, long wait for spring.

Today we'll finish the process of un-holidayifying the house. The tree will be down by evening, and the ornaments put away, leaving nothing to show for two weeks of merry-making and sloppy living but a few stray pine needles on the living room floor and cookie crumbs in the kitchen. But such is life. To those whom much holiday is given, much aggravation is expected.

And I expect to be thoroughly aggravated in less than 24 hours, lasting until, oh, maybe May? However long it takes for the daffodils and crocus to pop out of the ground. In the meantime, I'll have to find some way to occupy my time, something to distract me from the long, dark nights. Hmm, let's see. Home, work, family, grad school, reading, blogging, miscellany.

Whatever will I do with myself?