So I got a visit at the bakery from Jill with Kalie and Kellie in tow and both girls were looking for jobs (Kalie, to buy Christmas presents and also to aid her goals in helping to save the world as well as for college, Kellie to buy Christmas presents and then continue to work her way to top fashionista of the sophomore class) and they wanted to work at Tessa’s Cakes.

I hired them on the spot.

They were still on the payroll working some evenings and weekends, and although business had slowed, it was not by much. They were godsends, considering they were punctual, understood customer service, were hard workers, didn’t like to be bored, and were hilarious. Kellie was even learning how to decorate cakes.

In other words, they were two of the reasons I could finally have a day off.

The bad news about this was, I was overworked, exhausted, and my Christmas spirit had been drained out of me. Not to mention, I didn’t have it in me to stay on the ball with all that was happening around me.

Therefore, I pretty much didn’t know what was happening around me because Brock locked himself straight into protective mode and told me not to worry about that shit. Instead focus on the bakery and Christmas.

And I probably shouldn’t have taken him up on that but I did.

It wasn’t really true that I had no days off. I had Christmas and New Year’s off. But neither of these were days off, as such, considering the activity levels.

First, Mom was taking a long visit, enjoying an Australian summer with my sister, there Thanksgiving through the New Year, so I had to be up at an ungodly hour to get their Skype.

Then Brock only got the boys for half a day on both days and half that time needed to be spent having Christmas lunch/New Year’s dinner at his mother’s house, the other half at his pad. Then they had to get back home. So we were running around most of the day and I was doing my damnedest to make them good days for the boys because Olivia was still filling their head with garbage about me. They were visibly confused, worried about the state of affairs, worried about their dad, and struggling with loyalty to their mom in how they dealt with me.

So, suffice it to say, even protected from that shit by Brock, it still leaked in and I had also descended from really not liking Olivia to pretty much hating her.