The Receiving End

This hasn’t been the best week ever. On a scale of one to ten, I’d say this one has been a three. The upside of my bad week is that it’s happening during the week before Christmas. Do you know what that means? It means right in the midst of my unhappiness, people are giving me presents.


Seriously, it’s the perfect way to go through a bad week.

Being an Executive Assistant to a number of generous people means I am blessed with lots of year end liquor treats right before everyone takes off for their Hawaiian or Tahoe vacations.

To date, my booty includes:

- 3 bottles of fabulous and unique red wine

- 1 box of Assorted Chocolates from See’s

- 1 box of Nuts and Chews from See’s (my favorite!)

- 1 box of beautiful note cards

I was also treated last night to an evening out with my favorite team. My boss had the idea to take us all out for a holiday dinner now that there are so many of us. (For quite a while it was just him and me – sometimes I miss that, but usually I enjoy the larger team.) Dinner itself was at Benihana, which is the perfect large group place to go. I ended up sitting next to a new member of our team that I finally got a chance to know better, and it turns out he’s a great guy. The food was incredible and the entertainment was just as good. Afterwards we went bowling! We teamed up five on five and had the best time completely razzing and trash talking each other. Every team had a few good players and a few not so good players, so it was nicely evened out. I’m proud to say that on my team I had the 2nd highest score in the first game and the highest in the second game. Someone else got the nickname of “One Pin,” but it was all in good fun.

I wish I could say I’m giving everyone a fabulous gift right back, but I’m so completely not. This is going to have to be one of those light years where I’m a grateful receiver only. While I’m falling short at work, I have managed to successfully give a gift to all three of my children’s teachers. They deserve it more than anyone!

This weekend we have our family Christmas party at my cousin’s house, and for the first time in a while, I’m really looking forward to it. I think family is a good thing right now, as long as nobody says anything hateful that gets back to me later. That happened earlier this year and it SO puts a blemish on the idea that family should love us no matter what. If nothing else, let’s all try to be a little less judgmental this time of year, right?

Me included!