Christmas

All posts in the Christmas category

Working in an office during the festive season sucks

Published December 27, 2013 by iftheshoefits

I may have mentioned once or twice that I work with nerds.  This week and next week I’m working with pissed off nerds. 

I’ve ripped them away from the delights of Dr Who by day and Skyrim by night, and have asked them to stop their nocturnal programming activities and resume business as normal – anybody would think that I’m the Emperor.  But like the Rebel Leader, I’m protecting the weak against the mighty force of our client base.  Although, to be fair, the client base appears to be sleeping.  We’ve been in the control tower now for 100 minutes and the only call we’ve taken was when one of our own was running 20 minutes late.

It’s time for desperate measures, it may be time to talk to each other.  At the moment, the only noise in the vicinity is fingers tetchily bashing keyboards – the allure of Christmas leftovers and chocolate biscuits is fading.  The satsumas and pomegranates are rotting in the communal kitchen.  If anyone even mentions Christmas there will be a lynching.  Where’s a stargate when you need one?  Beam me up Scotty, it’s going to be a long day.

Xmas, Part Deux – Return of the Sibling

Published December 24, 2013 by iftheshoefits

Well, I made it back up to gale-force Scotland and back again in one piece.  My brother, his wife and their two boys stopped off for a week at my parents en route from Abu Dhabi to Norway for a snowy sled-filled Christmas.

It was magical spending time with everyone, although Mr ShoeThatAlwaysFits missed out on the fun due to work commitments.  Christmas brings out the child in all of us – me and my brother spent a frantic 20 minutes trying to beat each other at iPad table ice hockey (I won) and a few other games (again, I won).  My big brother then raided the attic and returned triumphant with his toy cars and all of his space lego (circa 1980) – I was delighted as finally, 30 years later, I would finally be allowed to play with it.  Mum told me that he used to build forts between me and his collection of lego to keep me and my little sticky fingers off of his precious toys.  And I can’t say that I was disappointed to watch Christmas DVDs meant for the kids – who knew that Polar Express was so charming?

I had a splendid couple of days getting jumped on, shot, and brainified.  It was fab – even if I was mostly over-fed, hungover and sleep-deprived.

So here’s to a quieter Christmas with me and the Mr, once I leave the office that is.

Finally – The Day Before The Day Before Christmas

Published December 23, 2013 by iftheshoefits

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Hooray – my favourite day of the year!  The frenzy is nearly over, it’s almost time to kick back and relax and it’s almost too late to buy anything else.

I love Christmas – I always have.  My parents take it very seriously – I once arrived home late one night post school  Christmas dance to find my Mum sewing cotton wool onto invisible thread. Our dog was having the time of his life wrapping himself up in it all.  When I asked her what exactly she was doing, she simply replied, “I’m making snow”.  Beautiful.  Twenty years later that snow still makes a comeback in her living room window.  They moved from the islands to the highlands when I was at university and that first Christmas she had people knocking on her door to find out how she had made the snow.  Trade secret, I could tell you, but then she’d have to kill me.

I embrace a non-traditional Christmas look – I’m allergic to real trees so I have a 7ft navy blue prelit tree decorated with turquoise, blue and silver.  I love it – MrShoeThatAlwaysFits is a bit of a Christmas Bah Humbug so he suffers a lot living with me , but them’s the breaks – tee hee hee.  And whilst we’re on a non-traditional Christmas theme – I don’t make Christmas dinner (and not just because I can’t cook).  My all time favourite meal is curry, luckily, it’s the same for Mr ShoeThatAlwaysFits, so we’ll be settling down on Christmas day (if he’s not working) to champagne, curry and red wine, followed up with a cheese board.  We’ve done that for a few years now and it’s our kind of Christmas day.

We really miss our families, but we’ve done our Christmas visit already and feel totally loved up.  And with the inventions of skype and facetime you’re never really that far away.

Now, I’m away to liven up the office with some Christmas music and a warm mince pie or two.  Merry Christmas one and all, good tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.

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