The Peanuts Time of Year

I absolutely love the holidays.  Seriously, my first job was in a year round Christmas store.  I'm full on obsessed; trees, lights, presents - you name it.  With the exception of chocolate advent calenders, which I usually end up eating over the course of two days instead of 25 and always make me sick.  I love the Peanuts specials, the Charlie brown feel.... i watched a marathon last night and my neighbors flicked on their Christmas lights and all felt right with the world.
Unfortunately, all is not right with the world.  The world is stressful and depressing and time moves way too fast.  I spent Thanksgiving day with LJ, getting drunk, eating baked brie and crying.  As sad as it sounds, it felt kind of good.  It was nice to sit there, with LJ and her mother and grandmother, her brothers ashes, and reminisce.  All of her brother's friends stopped by as I was leaving.  It was sad, but cleansing.  One good cry and I should be stable for a few weeks.
But then I think about B.  B. is my sister's best friend.  B died in a car accident on Christmas four years ago.  My sister doesn't cope well.  In general she's moody and spends way too much time trying to escape her demons through drugs or alcohol, but this time of year she's more than unpleasant, she becomes unbearable.  it definitely puts a damper on the spirit.
School is killing me.  I've got what, two weeks left?  I've got a ten page research paper, and I'm so far behind on my scripts that i don't even want to think about it.  two weeks.  that's it.
It's enough to make me not register for classes in the spring, but I'm afraid if I don't take at least one, I'll never go back.  So online art history, here I come!
As far as the craft goes, I'm making my way through a pile of books.  I should have some review-type posting up on Wednesday.  I'm still trying to save for the future, and the credit card offers I'm getting seem mighty tempting.  How much debt is too much debt?  I mean really.  When I say I'm about 1400 in debt, is that a lot?  Or a little?  I mean, the lawyer BF is in about 100,000.  I have like less than two percent of his debt.
I mean, thinking about it, another grand towards classes and headshots seems like debt well spent.  But the fact that I can't pay for it out of pocket makes me wonder how successfully I'll be able to pay it down.
Anyway, back to the grind.