The holiday event time of year is upon us. May your sweaters be admired with awe and disdain!
By now you and the kids have sat in Santa's lap, snapped photos for the annual e-card, and you've got the company holiday party this weekend. Or the church Christmas pageant. Or both.
There are so many things you're supposed to be at in the next two weeks, you're juggling Google and Microsoft Calendars. Your I-Phone is chiming like the Bells of St. Peter's.
You've probably even developed an irrational loathing of Santa Claus because he gets to have stand-ins everywhere he's supposed to be but not you. Nobody stands in for you.
Just showing up can double a person's workload this time of year.
So imagine you're the poor person responsible for that elaborate gathering people are working hard just showing up for. You're the one responsible for the cookies and ham sandwiches and the table, to have the entertainment start on time, and to find that Santa Claus and somebody to take the screaming toddler in his lap picture.
I'm here to tell you it's hard to pull one of these things off. It's not easy making specific things happen with random people at a designated place in real time. Anything and everything can go haywire even with the best planned events.
Your Santa could test positive for Covid.
You might never hear your Christmas playlist because you accidentally plugged into the output instead of the input jack on the brand new sound system.
You might even task an enthusiastic new volunteer with putting the bottled water into the cooler with ice and find him a few minutes later surrounded by empty bottles, pouring two bottles into the cooler at a time. It's an opportunity for growth.
Think these sound outlandish? Don't get me started on weather. Rain can turn to snow in minutes.
But by now you get my point. Events are hard.
What I'm really yammering about is please thank the folks who're making it happen when you've worked hard to be wherever it is you're enjoying a little holiday cheer. They're working a lot harder than you did to get there.
Also, we would be remiss if we didn't remind all of you to take the time during this holiday season to check that storage shed and make sure you still don't have any top secret documents. Wouldn't you like to reassure yourself that you didn't drunkenly stuff some national secrets into that personal items box that one time?
I can assure you that I have checked my storage shed for top secret documents and for tax returns from my huge corporation that is goodly in each and every way except for the things I don't know about. All nine of them.
It's the holiday season. As long as you have no outstanding warrants, subpoenas, court orders, they'll just take them back and send you home. Do it for your peace of mind.
Then you can get back to that next Christmas pageant. Ho ho ho!