I LOVE the holidays. I like decorating, shopping, baking, visiting, and partying. I go all-out to celebrate. My proudest non-work accomplishment at work was producing a CD of holiday music that was performed by my colleagues. One piece was composed by a friend in the Music Library and performed by a local orchestra—my friend let me add it to our CD. It took me months to talk people into singing or playing musical instruments, to obtain permission from rights owners to perform the songs selected, to schedule practices, and to get each piece recorded. A group of four instrumentalists formed a klezmer band because I wanted to include a Hanukkah song. I persuaded the University Librarian to read “The Night Before Christmas.” He has a very nice speaking voice and I needed him to fund me $500 to produce the CDs. My Administrative Assistant created original artwork to print on the CD and I found a guy down in San Diego that would produce 350 CDs for $500. Everything was done on non-work time and nobody except the CD guy was paid for their work. It was a labor of love produced by about 30 people who allowed me to cajole them into helping with my project. At the Library Holiday Party that year each staff person received a copy of the CD. I still have the CD and play it every Christmas.
I hope your holidays are filled with family, friends, and lots of love. Shirley