have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.....

I am feeling the holiday stress today...
I have already baked or made 7 different items for the cookie baskets I throw together every year and I have at least 4 more to do...*sigh* i am maxed out on my time, almost to the minute, between work and my duties as a mom and wife, I have less than 9 days to finish

I have only made half of the items I want to have ready for my daughters and husband, and I am struggling with the necessary motivation it is going to take to get it all finished....

I have 3 more Christmas parties I have to prep for, and one of them is the in-laws hosted at our home (which is HUGE) My husband has never hosted A holiday gathering before, and I suggested this year was our turn..... only time will tell whether that was a good move or not......

I am working MANY hours and trying to fit everything in....

Why didnt I start some of this stuff earlier? Well mostly because I hadnt thought about how MUCH i had to do until now.....*ugh*

I havent even made out my Christmas cards....do people even still mail out Christmas cards? Have we lost that as a society as well? Oh heavens!

Dont get me wrong, I love getting ready for Christmas, I just hope my tired body can keep up! I hope I get it all done...i hope everyone is pleased with what I have put soooo much time into.

well it's time for me to get back to lesson planning ...
This was a nice little 6 minute break anyhow... Merry Christmas my friends
Until next time....

and these are the days of our lives.......

so I was talking with one of my co-workers today and I realized something important...I mean it's something that I have know all along, but for some reason today it just clicked.....

THE BEST (or worst) FORM OF ADVERTISING IS WORD OF MOUTH.......

I live in a small community...one where if you aren't sure what you've been up to, you could just ask your neighbor and they can tell you...local gossip is ALWAYS entertaining and mostly you can only believe about 40% of what you hear from the town "mouths" (if EVEN that much)..

SO WHAT? WHY AM I WRITING ABOUT IT?

Well it goes like this....

My husband and I own a few little businesses in our community, and while I wouldn't consider either of them lucrative, they do fine. I like to think it's because we have formed some loyal bonds with people in our community.....

Now I will tell you that one of our businesses is a child care facility...there is only one other one in town that offers all day group licensed child care. So we are doing fine....its not exactly cut throat (at least not from our perspective)

Now I have been in the pygmie business for quite a long time, and I KNOW who I want to hire and who I WOULDN'T hire....I want the BEST, and I believe we have a staff that is second to NONE... because we have recruited the BEST.

Now, that also means that someone has to be second best...right? So...it's human nature to go into attack mode when you think you aren't "winning" and that's what has happened in our little community.....the "competition" is in attack mode, and it seems we are the target( which makes sense since we are the only other group facility). But it's not only the owner attacking, nope, she has some of the parents within her facility also doing her bidding......

It's rather ridiculous really, and it got me thinking.....this one parent who is the biggest gossip, works at a local coffee shop.....and whenever a parent from our facility comes in, she immediately goes into full gossip mode and spins these stories she pulls straight from her rear! Now ordinarily it wouldnt ruffle my feathers at all..I would let it run it's course and say nothing in response....

But she's been out of control and slamming my staff...who are like family to me...and quite frankly my sicilian temper has flared...I wanted to go all soprano on her butt...however, my husband keeps telling me that whatever the situation i must react with class...... *sigh*

So I have decided that since i used to be a "regular" at the shop this one girl manages (the place she holds her gossip sessions) I am no longer going to be a patron there....I figure why support a local business when the employees slam other businesses? I also wrote a letter to the owner (who is an acquaintance of mine) explaining that i cannot come to his business any longer due to the issue with his manager. I also will no longer refer any of my friends to this establishment either.....I will not support this woman's paycheck.....its THAT simple....I won't say anything malicious about her or the business she works for, I just won't refer anyone there...when people ask me which shop is the best I will tell them that the Mocha place is great (and I will say it with GUSTO)

I understand that this may not even make ANY difference to the girl or her boss, and I can tell you that I am fine with that...But at least it makes me feel better...I don't have to look at her and I certainly wont have to refrain from devising ways to dispose of a body....(a bit drastic?) LOL

So there you have it...my minor vent on a snip-it of drama that happens in a day in the life....

that's all I have, Until next time....