...and I think I might be getting into a sort of seasonal spirit?
It's not something that comes easily to me. Whatever it might look like from the outside, in my experience, office life does not really stop during this season. Sure, far more people are off on vacation, and the taskings slow down. But they don't stop, and the timelines remain as short as they always do. And they're assigned to much smaller teams.
In government, "sorry for the tight turnaround" might as well be built into email templates the same way as call centre phone trees always have a recorded message that they're "experiencing higher-than expected call volumes".
For me, this means that I never really do get to pay attention to the season in a way that I once did (notwithstanding the scheduled holiday cheer around the office) and am mostly just dreading the due-yesterday tasks that mostly continue to be due yesterday so they can sit patiently on senior desks to be half-remembered by the time they're necessary.
Still, in spite of it all, I have been thinking about our Christmas a whole lot this week.
Kathleen and I like to have a quiet and private holiday.
Our Christmas Eve includes delicious Chinese food and one or two Christmas movies on the couch beneath the blankets all cozy and full. Since we already watched A Christmas Story (1983) last weekend, tonight would be chosen from The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), One Magic Christmas (1985), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
For Christmas Day, our current tradition is to build a lego set together, have a nice breakfast (pancakes! with fruit, maple syrup, and vegan whipped cream), and otherwise just spend a quiet and cozy day together until it's time to make dinner (vegan wellington!). That's more-or-less it! Otherwise, it's really nice to have time to do our hobbies or otherwise just lolligag.
December 24, 2025