Christmas Day

It is the closing of Christmas day. My wife, daughter and I have been sick all day, but had some great family to make it all fly by. Plus Rachel loved the gifts Santa brought, especially an Elmo you shake and who talks. Go figure, a daughter who watches almost no TV has latched on to Elmo because of the Sesame Street books we read.

It was a great Christmas all around. While I am feeling crummy, and exhausted, I knew I'd want to share that with someone. It just feels good to have 10 people filling up the house, opening gifts, sharing stories, cooking and sleeping (great-grandpap dozed a bit, I did for the two seconds I could).

Even Rachel, who wouldn't take a nap, did great. She was happy, running around opening presents and saying "pull" while pulling the wrapping paper off.

So, it's not 8:20 and I'm finishing this up and enjoying a quick conversation with my friend Amber while I write. I did want to share one story which came out today and I thought was pretty amazing. Possibly not a miracle, but then to some of the people affected, they could see it that way.

So, I like food. I love going out to eat, especially when someone else is paying. That's probably why I liked this story so much.

My father in law Jeff works as a manager for the IRS. He test software applications, so don't go thinking he can answer tax questions. He's only been there about 20 years or so, so he's lucky he can even spell IRS.

Each year they give the managers a bonus based on the successful work they do. It encourages them all to do a good job and save you tax dollars, so don't complain :) This year he did receive a decent bonus and came up with an idea of what to do with the money.

He took out to lunch all of the people that work under him.

that may not sound like such an incredible thing. But having worked as a contractor for the government you see pretty clearly that government workers get very very little benefits besides a good retirement plan. I mean, if they want water from a water cooler they have to pay each month to be part of the "water club".

On top of it, this was a bonus Jeff received. If I take people I manage out to lunch I generally have the company pay for it (something the government will almost never do). If I pay for it I may be taking one or two people out, not an entire team which Jeff did.

So, it may seem small to some people. But to some of the people invited to lunch it must have been a small miracle. So many other managers pocket the money, chalking it up to their own good leadership. Knowing my manager saw that the money he was given really was due to the work the team did would make me feel so incredibly special and recognized.

So, while it may seem small, I'm sure it was big to some people. I'm so glad to be related to people like that.

Peace and Merry Christmas,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 8:15 PM