“Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.
Peace on Earth, good will to men,
kind thoughts and words of cheer,
are things we should use often
and not just once a year.”
– Norman Wesley Brooks
Christmas time, this year so much to be grateful for…….but as my energy level, life and business travel pick up – I am still tired and need to protect my energy and pace myself through the holiday rush.
I had a Board Meeting and a business trip the week before Christmas. I had to fly to Chicago on December 18th, have a bunch of meetings, a coaching session with a client and run out to play “Santa” for my nieces and family out in Barrington. It was such a great trip but utterly exhausting.
Here was my schedule, new client meeting as soon as I landed on Wednesday morning. Michelle and Cindy picked me up and we went straight to our clients offices where we spent the afternoon getting to know our new client. We then drove back into the city and had a glass of champagne to toast the holidays together at RL on Michigan Avenue. After our little celebration I took a cab over to surprise all of my old Tribune recruitment team and other ex-coworkers at their annual Christmas celebration. It was so great, everyone was so surprised and excited to see me, just as excited as I was to see them! I stayed for a little over an hour and then cabbed over to our “Board” dinner at Sullivan’s Steak house…..what an evening!
The next morning, I had several meetings in the city and a coaching session before our Board Meeting that ran most of the afternoon. As soon as the meeting was over, I ran to Bath and Body Works and several other stores to buy gifts for my nieces for Christmas. I even got a Santa hat to surprise them and hand out their stockings and gifts. From there, I met Tricia at the train station and we took the train out to Barrington. My nieces were so surprised, it warmed my heart to see how excited some of them were!
After we picked the girls up, we went and got my mom and we all went to Biltmore Country Club to meet my brother in law Jim for a holiday family dinner together. Biltmore is the Country Club that I grew up at, so many happy childhood memories there. It was all decorated to beautifully and warm for the holidays. I couldn’t help but feel as though I was truly “home for the holidays” for the first time in 5 years. We had a great time at dinner and there were singers singing beautiful holiday songs that brought both my sister and me to tears as we looked across the table at each other and the wonderful holiday memories from growing up came flooding back into our minds. What a way to begin the holidays!
The following morning, I woke at 4 am to catch the first flight back to New York so that I could make it back in time for Christopher’s pre-school holiday concert! I made it just in time to drop my bags at home and get to St. John’s so see my sweet little boy singing “Jingle Bell Rock” – it was priceless and so worth the early morning flight not to miss this special moment with Christopher! As he shyly looked over at me with a huge grin, all was right with the world.
Needless to say, I passed out the moment my head hit the pillow on Friday night. What a week!