Today

In a few hours, my inlaws and two friends are coming over. I have two beautiful lasagnas in my fridge that are ready to bake--a red lasagna with ground beef, tomato sauce and mushrooms and a green lasagna with spinach, alfredo sauce and garlic. My sister helped make five desserts. We are having red velvet cake, fudge pecan pie, peanut butter fudge pie, Tollhouse/chocolate chip pie and fudge. (Do you see a chocolate theme? :) The red velvet cake is yummy and coordinates well with the colors of the season, but really was chosen for my mother in law who can't eat chocolate). We have a tiny little tree and one present for everyone, with the exception of Boo Boo who gets three.

Christmas is a really fun tradition to me. In my house, it's like Thanksgiving with presents. You have more flexibility with the menu. Red and green is prettier than brown and orange. There are songs to sing and cards to send out, both of which I really enjoy. But basically, its just a time to be with your family, eat good food, take some time off from work, and remember how lucky we all are. I believe in secular Christmas. We don't have any church stuff to worry about. It's American, and so much fun.

Whatever you believe in, whatever you do today, enjoy, be merry and relax.

Happy Holly-daze

I went to three Christmas parties at my office in the month of December. We had: 1) a black tie evening of drinks, a four course dinner, dancing and poker for the attorneys on a Saturday night at a hotel; 2) an evening of drinks and dinner right after work on a Friday for the whole office, including the secretaries, mail room people, and receptionists, at a restuarant; and 3) a reception at the office for clients and co-counsel. This is the third holiday season I've been at my firm (interesting aside--this is the longest I've been at one job in my whole life) and I'm always surprised that they do one party for the attorneys and one party for the staff. Because the party for the staff is at 5:30 pm, most spouses don't attend. Some folks go home to change and don't get to the party until 6:30 while others leave at 7:00. It never really feels like a second class party once you get there--everyone is jolly and the Christmas bonuses are handed out that day.

The partners at my firm are the nicest, most flexible, credit-sharing, bonus-giving people I've ever worked with at a lawfirm. Our salaries are generous and all year long they emphasize (and truly believe, I think) that everyone is a team. But the idea of two parties just seems ... something. Exclusionary? Elitist? Non-egalitarian? I think I feel this way because the holiday season is supposed to be about everyone coming together. I understand that the partners may want to let loose, drink and be themselves without the staff watching. But maybe there's a better way to accomplish that. I think that if I ran the firm, I wouldn't make it so obvious that there are two parties. I'd have the attorney party, and then have a staff holiday luncheon at a restuarant. Everyone eats, drinks, gets their bonuses and then gets the rest of the day off to finish Christmas shopping. We had a luncheon like that once when a big case settled and it was a lot of fun. On the other hand, there's always hierarchy in any organization and maybe I making way too much of this. What do you think?

meme

The lovely Stephanie A. has tagged me with a meme. So here are 5 things you probably don't know about me.

1. I am grossed by by minor things, but can surprisingly manage others. I can kill bugs, de-snot, de-poop, and de-vomit a child, and skin and cut up a whole chicken, but I’m really grossed out by loading dishes and having to scrape plates that have been soaking in the dirty dish water. Something about plunging my hands into sitting dirty water with bits of food floating makes me nauseous. I also hate walking in wet, muddy grass after it rains.
2. I can fall asleep anywhere. I can sleep in the car during a 15 minute trip. I can sleep on the plane, on the bus to work, at work, anywhere. When I was in school, I’d take these really great notes that were almost transcripts of what the professor was saying, but you could always tell exactly where I’d fallen asleep because the notes would trail off into gibberish. And sometimes, when someone tells me to wake up, I insist I’m not asleep. I’ll keep taking notes, but in chicken scratch scrawl that no one can read. What's funny is how quickly I can hear Boo Boo crying at night, even if I am asleep.
3. I’m kind of obsessed with my name. It’s not that I love my name, it’s just okay, but for some reason, I like to personalize anything I can—stationary, pajamas, backpacks. I practice writing it when I doodle, I practice typing it when I’m sitting on a conference call, I write it in fog on the shower wall or on my bathroom mirror after a hot bath, I build letter F’s when I’m playing with Boo Boo’s blocks, and I know of at least 7 different ways to write a cute “F”.
4. I love music fromt he 50s, 60s and 70s. Not exclusively (I like music from the 80s, 90s and today too), but my parents always played music like the Beatles, Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, and the Supremes growing up, and I listened to it with them and can sing along. I won a Name that Tune contest on our Oldies station when I was 16 and the DJ was kind of amazed that he had someone my age listening. Recently, our Oldies station switched formats to play music from the 60s and 70s. I called and asked what happened to the du wop 50s stuff and they said the market research showed people didn't want hear it any more. What's up with that?
5. I can see myself teaching highschool, becoming a nurse, or working in HR in a few more years. I don't think I want to practice law forever.

I never know if people like these or not. So if you want to be tagged, I invite you to do it on your blog, or play along in the comments!