Griswald's Revenge

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Today was (and is typically) one of my favorite days of the Christmas season. Today is the day the North Pole Village was decorated for Christmas. I suspect many of you might think the North Pole is always decorated but it is not. We do keep a few Christmas symbols up and it is always snowy but the full decorations - garlands, Christmas trees, mistletoe, lights, etc. - are saved for the first Sunday after Thanksgiving through the Orthodox Russian Christmas in early January.

I reviewed this year's plans with the North Pole Decorating Committee yesterday. The biggest concern in recent years has been the power requirements. 4 years ago, we underestimated the power required to run all the lighted decorations and it sent a rolling black-out across Northern Europe and Asia. We have since upgraded our own power supplies and put in breakers to prevent any issues from entering the main grid.

When I awoke this morning, I went for a run - I hope I can keep a 5- to 6-day a week running schedule this Christmas season - and jogged through the Village. Even at 4:30am, the square was full of elves and reindeer buzzing around with decorations. It is a long & very busy day to get everything up in time for the evening celebration.

My day was pretty typical for the Christmas season. Whirlwind tour around the Americas and Europe for parades, tree-lightings, and mall appearances. I had one visit with a Head of State to negotiate trade regulations. But when I returned earlier this evening, everything looked good and I signed off to let the official tree lighting go on as scheduled (ironic that we have our own tree lighting, eh?). And it was fun. Hot Chocalate, roasted chestnuts, hot apple cider, ginger bread cookies, Christmas carols... how much more fun could it have been? The best part was that I was able to just be myself and enjoy the ceremony as a participant. Mrs. Claus had the lighting honors at the North Pole tree lighting ceremony as she does every year.

After the ceremony, I grabbed a non-fat, sugar-free Ginger Bread Latte from Starbucks and headed over to the office, where I am at now, to post this update. I'm finished with the latte, so I think I'm going to walk back over and pick up another one, before retiring back to office at home to answer a few emails before I go to bed. Have a great evening everyone!