We are getting close to Christmas! The anticipation is building up slowly and with each passing day the excitement gets closer to the crescendo. Time to think about Christmas cards! Read how you could start a better day and why your colleague is better behaved! Join me…

Remember last year we celebrated Hanukkah at Seth’s place? Megan was dating him then. To borrow one of those British expressions, a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. Megan isn’t dating him anymore and he’s not in town as well. Hanukkah is paying us an early visit this year, so Seth’s plans are getting out of control. Megan didn’t want him to feel lonely this year, after the fun feast we had last year. So Megan decided to send something over as a token gift to tell him that we remember him.

Megan bought wonderful Hanukkah candles for Seth. I was told he likes them a lot and used to order them every year from this particular shop. Megan went down to that place and ordered exactly what he would have liked to buy himself. The candles will reach him at his work place. We all think it was a fantastic gesture from Megan. Trust this girl to make all the right moves when the time comes. I wish I had her common sense!

When you have an artist in you, the restless person in you longs to look for opportunities. You are always on the search to express the creativity in you. Rachael is a wonderful artist with the pencil. Her room has some of her pencil sketches and you have to trust me on this: they are beautiful. Rachael has been toying with the idea of making Christmas cards this year. “I want to give it a personal touch!” is what Rachael told Liz, my sister and her mom.

With this idea in mind, Rachael has started hand painting cards for all her special ones. Of course, the first one was for mom. Next up was for love, Charlie. I heard Liz was teasing her that the Christmas card Rachael drew for Charlie was better than the one Liz got! I don’t think that is true, though. The point is, however, that if you are short of dough this Christmas, you can try out her idea. And if you are also hard pressed for time, try Christmas ecards. They save time and also go high on artistic value.

Adrian has suddenly realized that leftover pizza isn’t such a great breakfast idea after all! Cathy, his love interest, told him categorically that he was expected to have a proper breakfast every morning. Adrian slurred me over beer at night, “I need nutritious food, Bob.” I felt that he was asking for a hot chocolate drink at the bar! I tried to hide my guffaws. But Adrian was in no mood to let things be. He went on, “Vitamins, proteins, I need all that! I need to take care of myself!”

“It’s a very good idea,” I tried to pacify him, because he was getting worked up. “I don’t want it to remain like one of our countless ideas,” he retorted. I think he realized that I was taking all these as one of his drunken decisions which he would forget next morning. “I will have my vitamins!” was his last sentence before he passed off. But the idea didn’t leave him. Adrian is sticking to a good breakfast as his love wanted. I’m thinking of giving up on some junk as well. Wouldn’t you join the club?

How often have you been offended by the obnoxious behavior of your colleagues? More often than not, I suppose! It’s the same in our office as well. Being a writer, you know how important it is that I have some peace and quiet around me. But things are not what I want them to be. Sometimes it does get very irritating. Now how would you like when you are trying to hammer something out of your mind with a bad writer’s block and there’s someone talking about saucy gossip right next to you? Hardly ideal work conditions!

Distracted by the gossip, I had this crazy idea about checking out on office behavior. I read articles and other pieces on the internet. I came across this report by the National Business Ethics Survey which revealed that employees are behaving better with the recession on. They are concentrating more on their work because they have to prove themselves everyday at work. There are less complaints and lesser misdeed reported! But the crux is, if the compensation of good behavior is the recession, there are certainly no takers!

Here’s a good reason by Winston Churchill why you should make the effort to reach out to your loved ones this festive season: “We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.”