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Dolce Far Niente

Trish — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:44:55 +0000

I’ve written before about how finding a soul mate and how the book (and movie) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is one of my favorite stories. There were so many inspirational moments. One of my favorite lines is ”dolce far niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing.

As you wind down 2011 and celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza, my wish for you is that you have family or friends to spend time with who will bring you joy and happiness. I hope that your spirit is renewed and you feel the love from all the special people in your life. Most of all, I wish you dolce far niente.

Happy Holidays~

Trish

Vacations and Blogging Don’t Mix

Trish — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:44:32 +0000

Hello! Well, I’m back from a 5 day vacation to magical Disney World. I’m happy to report that I was actually able to live without my computer for that long since some of my family members probably think I’m tied to it. It was nice to take time away and focus on my kiddos and ensure that they had the most magical experience ever. If you’re expecting a business-related post, those will be back tomorrow. For now, I thought I’d share a couple stories from the trip for those of you who are interested.

Our holiday was a complete surprise for my 7 year old twins. They woke up on Christmas eve morning at 4:00 am to be told that Santa left them a note. It said they needed to go to the airport. The drive to the airport was one filled with excitement as they tried to guess where Santa was sending them. Once at the airport, their Grandpa gave them Mickey and Minnie stuffed animals as their clue. They were ecstatic! We spent Christmas eve at the Hollywood Studios park and had a wonderful time watching Fantasmic. We ended our night at the Brown Derby and walked through the Osbourne Family Christmas light display. It was an amazing amount of light.

Christmas day started with Santa leaving presents under our tiny tree in the hotel room. My kiddos were so happy that Santa could find them. Luckily we decided to spend the day at Epcot because the Magic Kingdom ended up closing once it reached 70,000 guests that day! After that, there was swimming, eating meals with characters, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, lots of roller coasters, more food and sweets than we needed, and even several shows. All in all it was a good break.

Hope you all enjoyed your holidays, whether that means celebrating Christmas, Chanukkah, or other holidays!

Headed to Christmas dinner at Epcot

Share the Love

Trish — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:22:36 +0000

I have all these fun ideas for posts lately and of course they come at a time of year when I have the least amount of time to write. And, many of those ideas will take some research and time to develop more fully. So as I sit here this morning and write, I think instead of doing this, I am going to use any of my free time over the next couple days to send personal little notes to people I love. Family, friends, people I admire.

Is it sappy? Yep. But I think that since I can’t just take the day off to spend time calling each person, some short little notes to tell people that I’m thinking of them and wishing them a Merry Christmas will be nice. So, stop reading this and spend a moment sending a little email, FaceBook message, or tweet to someone you miss and care about. I’ll catch you back here tomorrow!

Happy Wednesday

Christmas Controversy: Gift Giving at Work

Trish — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:24:07 +0000

Who’s up for some controversy? We’re a few days away from Christmas and although not everyone celebrates this holiday, from what I hear, many organizations still recognize it as an opportunity for gift giving. But, each year I hear more stories about people who are offended by this practice because it does not recognize other religions. In fact, it’s far more common to hear people with others “happy holidays” in December than calling out a specific holiday.

Where I work, we all receive a gift from senior leadership. And, from the reactions I have heard so far, everyone really appreciates it. We don’t exchange gifts in the HR department, but had a wonderful baking-from-scratch contest yesterday, a holiday lunch for the team, some special treats today, and made time to just enjoy being together as a group. It was wonderful.

I thought I’d do a very unscientific study to find out:

Does your organization give a gift to each employee? Do the employees appreciate it if they receive one?
Do you exchange gifts within your department?
If you do exchange gifts, how is it done (openly, Secret Santa, White Elephant style, etc.)?
Do you think that Christmas gift-giving shouldn’t be done because not everyone celebrates this holiday? Pros/ cons?

Share with me in the comments. I think it will be interesting to hear how different organizations acknowledge the holiday or if they don’t.

Re-Gifting: Great Idea or Horrible Torture?

Trish — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:03:14 +0000

The Frowl- photo courtesy of Chris Frede (@HR_Buoy)

Well, we’re full on in the gift giving season and I’m wondering about re-gifting. I don’t do it BUT, I have received several presents over the years that still sit in the closet, unopened. Maybe I should give them to someone else.

Let’s see, I have:

Several strange ornaments
Some nice binoculars. These are cool, but I really haven’t found anything I need to see that close up.
A puzzle of New York City. I like to travel to NYC, not make puzzles of the skyline.
A bible. Ok, I already have a bible. Don’t know why someone thought I’d need a new one. The old one does ok and quite honestly, the only one I read is the Children’s version anymore.
Movies like The Money Pit, Major League, and Batman Dark Knight. I’m fairly certain those should be given away.

So, you see, I could really give some great gifts to my family and friends and not have to brave the stores. At my last job, we all re-gifted one hideous gift. It was called the Frowl. It was a pottery piece that looked like a cross between a frog and an owl. It was either some odd candle holder or a toothbrush holder. We figured that out because it had holes in the belly. Each person who received it couldn’t wait to pass it on to someone else at the next holiday or milestone.

What do you think about re-gifting? Do you do it? What’s the WORST gift you’ve ever re-gifted or received that you think was re-gifted to you? Share in the comments!