They Call It Black Friday

I ended up and didn't sleep much last night. After I posted, I went to bed but laid there wide awake for two hours before the alarm went off at 3am. I was so excited about the official start of the Holiday season I just couldn't sleep. It's much the same feeling that I suspect you have when you go to bed on Christmas Eve... the excitement and anticipation are just too much, even for an exhausted body.

So when the alarm went off at 3am, I quickly shut it off to keep from waking up Mrs. Claus and I gleefully hopped out of bed. I put on my running shoes and headed out for quick run through the Village. When I got back, I brewed my first pot of (decaf) Christmas Blend coffee and the first cup was ready when I got out of the shower. I slammed the coffee along with a protein smoothie I had put in the fridge the night before and headed out the door for my 5am (NPT) staff meeting. I checked my iPhone (I am using both iPhone & Blackberry... I interchange them based on how much email I am going to do that day. I prefer Blackberry for email and the iPhone for viewing reports & applications) on the way to staff meeting for the Naughty & Nice Executive Scorecard. It was there. North America had the typical post-Thanksgiving "bump" in Nice by almost 10% since last quarter... it happens every year. Central & South America and Europe & Middle East regions were both slightly up in the Nice category. Central & South America up 1.2% and Europe & Middle East up 0.3%. Africa was virtually flat (down 0.02%). Asia-Pacific was disappointing, down almost 5% (i.e. Naughty list up 4.7 points).

Staff meeting was focused on reviewing overall readiness. From there, my Senior Team and I all went over to the Operations Center for an all-Employee meeting at 6am NPT. The teams based in other locations like China and India all watched on video we streamed over the web. After Jingle welcomed everyone, each of the regional GMs briefly reviewed their goals for this Holiday season, and then I officially kicked off the countdown to Christmas Eve 2009. And as soon as the meeting was done and the Christmas carols began to play, everyone quickly scurried out to their workstations and Christmas Season 2009 was underway.

I caught a sleigh to Brussels, where I made a morning show appearance and met with NATO officials regarding air security on Christmas Eve. From there, I flew to the east coast of the US where I made a number of morning show appearances before spending the day criss-crossing the US and Canada for mall appearances, parades, and the occasional local news interview. As I finished up afternoon mall appearances on the US West Coast, I made a quick trip to Asia for a number of public appearances before returning back to the US where I participated in 3 different parades.

Then it was back to the North Pole for a tour of the Production Facility, to the Operations Center for the first look at long-range weather forecast models, a brief tour of the Distribution Center, and to the all-Reindeer meeting where I gave a brief presentation. At 11pm NPT, I met with my staff again for a brief end-of-day status report. I am happy to say that after our first full shift of operations (its not a full day yet, we'll be running 24x7), all areas remained "green".

Mrs. Claus and I then had a late dinner together. She went to bed immediately after dinner but I came back into my home office here to catch up on emails. There was definitely a jump in my email traffic today. I get that every year on Black Friday. And those increased volumes sustain through Christmas Eve. As I started to write this post, I had just finished two hours of reading & responding to those emails. At this point, its time for me to go to bed and try to get a couple of hours of sleep... Saturday is going to be just as busy, maybe busier, than today.

Good night, All. And Happy Holidays!