This week at work we have been participating in a Secret Santa exchange.  This is my favorite, as I love to find a way to surprise someone every day all week long.  It\’s an excuse to sneak around and dress festively and tell all kinds of acceptable lies, like, \”I have no idea who put that there!\”

I was happy to be part of organizing the festivities this year even though I am new to this team.  I found it to be a great experience to bond with my new team as well.  Even though I was only buying for one person, I got to be the delivery elf for many people and had so much fun surprising people and watching them be delighted over the thoughtful things they are receiving.

Giving is so fun.  Surprising people is one of the great joys we have.  It has been a long time since I made a Frasier reference, but there is a great episode about this!  Back in season 4, there is an episode where Daphne gives Martin a sweater she made for him.  Martin responds by trying to pay her for it, and Daphne is outraged.  Then Frasier comes in and comments on his sweater, and Martin responds that Daphne made it for him.  Frasier says, \”You don\’t seem very happy about it.\”  And Martin says, \”No, well, I\’m not.  You don\’t just give somebody something for no reason, that\’s my rule.\”

Frasier responds, \”Spontaneous gift-giving is one of life\’s great pleasures.\”

Even though with secret Santa it\’s not \”spontaneous\” exactly, the principle holds true.  Giving truly is better than receiving.  Giving is fun.  Giving allows us to focus all of our creativity on being thoughtful toward someone.  Giving allows us to show someone how we are thinking about them.

My husband is a fabulous gift giver, and not just with me.  He is the most thoughtful person, meticulously planning and gathering gifts for whoever he is buying for, using the opportunity to demonstrate that he has been paying attention even when he hasn\’t responded with words.  I am amazed at how he demonstrates his love through giving.  I especially love watching him do it for others.  He understands gift giving as a love language, and he uses it to speak to people\’s hearts.

I have enjoyed using gift giving as a way to get to know these new people, and I have even put aside my aversion to workplace hugging to share and show appreciation!

A coworker of mine was recently very sick.  She had just been feeling under the weather, but throughout the day at work, she started feeling much worse.  Even though she left early, by the time she left she had a fever over 103 degrees.  She was also not the only person in the office who was sick, many others have had varying degrees of cold symptoms, and so I had been widely exposed.

I came home from work the next day and felt a suspicious congestion in my throat and the early signs of a sinus headache.  I am prone to sinus infections and I get very anxious when those first signs start to appear.

I then proceeded to take the precautionary course of prevention and treatment that has now worked three times in a row where I have started to feel like I was coming down with something and managed to avoid it.

The first thing I did was get myself a few things from the store.  I bought Mucinex, both in liquid and tablet form.  I prefer the liquid for effectiveness but I prefer the tablets to bring to work.  I follow the dosing instructions carefully because if you maintain the proper dosage the mucous doesn\’t have the chance to build up.  I also got myself some Airborne.  In the past, I have used the effervescent tablets, but this time I got the gummies instead which taste a lot better.  I also got the Zicam nasal spray that is designed to shorten a cold.  Finally, I always have Grapefruit Seed Extract in capsule form at home.  GSE is a natural antiviral and antibacterial.

I would take the GSE first thing in the morning and right before bed.  I would do the same with the Airborne gummies and the nasal spray.  I took the Mucinex throughout the day.  Also, I got in one hard, sweaty workout, followed by a hot shower and a hearty meal.  I have long since found that getting the body temperature up seems to help – so long as you aren\’t already truly sick because then it makes it worse.

I did this routine for a few days and I am feeling 100% with no sign of catching what my coworker had.  I have found this course of prevention far easier to do than curing a sinus infection or a hacking cough.  I have asthma, and even though it is well controlled, getting a chest cold also makes me very nervous, so it is worth it to work toward prevention, especially during cold and flu season.

There is no doubt that healthy meals, lots of rest and proper hydration play a role in this as well, the supplements are just a boost to basic healthy habits that create a good immune system.  However, this combination has now helped me several times and I feel like I have a large degree of confidence in it.  Also, I find the preventative treatment options far easier on my body than a round of antibiotics or other medication if I do get sick.

I caution anyone to talk to their doctor and to do some research before starting any course of treatment.  Even natural supplements like GSE can have side effects or interactions with other medications that you are taking.

My husband took me to see Justice League this weekend for a date.  I am pretty sure we both have a crush on Gal Gadot, and he will sell me on any movie that Henry Cavill is in to get me to go.  I am not a movie buff by any means, and 10 years ago I wouldn\’t have known the difference between DC and Marvel, but here we are.  I have to laugh knowing how marriage has changed me!

Growing up, I was exposed to electronics and technology very young. My dad was a major techie, and from the age of 2 and 3, I was learning to use computers and play video games.

It\’s funny how as adults we can always remember the couple of gifts we got as kids that meant the most to us.  Often time they weren\’t even the most expensive gifts we received, but they stand out in our minds as the most memorable.

When I was four, I got my first two-wheeled bike.  It had training wheels at first, which soon came off, and I remember being thrilled.  We were on our American travels at that time, living in a motorhome and moving from place to place and traveling around, so I learned to ride a bike alongside the Rio Grande, and in the deserts of Arizona.  I don\’t remember specifically asking for it or not, but it was a very happy day when I got my bike.  It wasn\’t just a thing…it was an experience!  It was an adventure. And my little legs peddled all over the place as fast as they could!

I had inherited a Cabbage Patch doll when I was a little girl, and when I was seven they had released the new version of the dolls that had different hair that you could style.  Well, I was smitten and I begged my parents relentlessly, it was all I wanted for Christmas that year.  On Christmas morning, I was overjoyed when I unwrapped my own little Jillian Paulette, which was the name on the Cabbage Patch birth certificate.  To this day, I have that doll carefully displayed in my house.  When I look at it, I am reminded of the hours I spent playing with her and taking her with me, on my bike, on my adventures.

When I was eleven, my parents gave me a small camera that used 110 cartridge film.  My first camera.  I had started babysitting around that time, and much of my earned money and allowance was spent buying film and getting it developed.  To this day, I have many of the very poorly taken photos that my friends and I took with that old camera. It was a small, purple, rectangular camera…almost the same shade of purple as the pistol my husband got me for my 30th birthday!  None of the pictures were good, but they preserved the memories of my childhood.

In every case, it wasn\’t the value of the gift, or the gift itself, but the memories that came from it that made it so memorable.  My parents and my husband have given me many great and wonderful gifts over the years, but those ones stand out so much for me because of the memories I have of them.  I think a lot of people stress out at this time of year trying to come up with the perfect gift for someone, but I don\’t think it needs to be that complicated.

I remember that scene at the end of the Santa Clause with Tim Allen and that weird weenie whistle that guy wanted as a kid!  It is not always the big shiny things that people want the most.

I tend to be a stickler for the English language sometimes.  I hate when people use incorrect forms of words that have, since being so commonly misused, been added to the dictionary.  However, the English language is also very limiting in some ways and totally illogical in others.  Even Shakespeare invented his own words, so I have no problem now and then adding to my vocabulary words that my family has developed when the English language has left them wanting.

Below is a list of a few words that, uttered once in a moment of hilarity or desperation, have now become a part of my regular vocabulary:

Epis: this one was invented by my mom in a moment where she couldn\’t find the correct English word or phrase to suit her.  She had said something like, \”And what did I get?\” And there was a pause.  I assume she could have also said \”Diddly squat!\”  But that isn\’t what her mind reached for in that moment.  Instead, she said, \”Epis!\”  And we all knew what it meant when she said it.  And now, in our family, when we have zero, zilch, nothin\’, or ain\’t got no, we almost always now refer to it as epis!

Jahm: this one is so old that we aren\’t quite sure how it started, but we believe it was started by my brother.  It began with the phrase \”let\’s jam.\”  And from there, my brother fancied it up to be \”le jahm!\”  Perhaps, he thought, by saying it like this it sounds spicier!  Well, it eventually got shortened to just jahm and now, even our dogs know this command.  Jahm means, \”let\’s go!\”  When I say it to my dogs, they get up and follow me.  So, now it has not only entered the English language in my home, but my dogs also understand it.

Pema: this one is thirty years old and was started by my sister.  As kids, we all said weird things when we meant a different word.  I know as a very young toddler, I loved my swing, but I called it a gwang, but that never caught on.  My sister, however, referred to her spoon as a pema.  She had a gravelly voice and would say, \”Give me pema!\”  This made it into our vocabulary.  Many years later, my husband and I were living in a heavily Spanish speaking area.  He had heard us call a spoon a pema for years, and we never explained, and he never asked.  Well, he came home from work and said very indignantly to me, \”Pema is not Spanish for spoon!\”  And I just looked at him and said, \”I know.  What happened to you today?\”  We never did hear the story, but I have some strong suspicions about how that went down!

I could probably think of a dozen other words invented through funny stories, moments of misspeaking, or something we inherited from childhood.  There is an odd hypocrisy within myself where I will balk at someone misusing a common English word or phrase, and yet I will gleefully use my own invented words in casual conversation.  I chalk this up to one of the quirks of being a writer, knowing my motive is always to communicate in a way others can understand or relate to – while at the same time knowing full well I don\’t do this perfecly very often!

I love Christmas.  I always have.  I love everything about it from the twinkling lights to the dairy free eggnog that I drink.  I love having Christmas as an opportunity at work to be festive and spread cheer to my coworkers.  I own enough unique pieces of Christmas headgear to wear a different one to work everyday through the month of December, and I never miss a moment of Christmas fun!

I stopped sending most people traditional Christmas cards via the mail years ago and instead took my Christmas cheer digital, but for my coworkers, I have always enjoyed putting on a little something special.  I like to give a card with a hand written note, maybe some chocolate and a small Christmas ornament.  Nothing big, but just a small way to be festive and let them know I am thinking of them specifically in what I write or choose to give.

I find it very bizarre that every year I will get a few dozen cards in return from people, but many of them put no thought into them.  They buy a box of fifty generic store cards, and do not even address it to the receiver.  They autograph their name at the bottom, no personalized message, and toss them onto my desk.  Could be for me, or for anyone.  My name is nowhere on it.

When this happens, I wonder why people bother.  Christmas cards aren\’t for everyone, and that\’s fine.  Maybe they only do it because they feel obligated.  But in any case, when I get such a non-personal card I don\’t even display it at my desk.

I will be sitting down this weekend to take a moment to reflect on each person and wish them a Merry Christmas.  I will try to personalize it just for them, so they know they were in my thoughts as I wrote the card.  I found these adorable draw string gift bags that look like Santa\’s sack, and I will fill it with Christmas chocolate.  There will candy canes and other very small, very inexpensive things that just brighten up a moment, but let them know that I love being a part of the team.

My goal is to spread Christmas cheer, not Christmas indifference!

As part of my Day Zero Project goals, I am slowly working through the list of unlistened to audiobooks that I have (40 in all!) and have been working backward from longest to shortest.  I was so excited recently when Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson came up next.

My coworkers and I often joke that \”feedback is a gift\” – and hence, every day is Christmas.  It is sometimes hard to put yourself out there knowing that with expression often comes criticism.  And the more passionate and important the expression is, the more fervent the feedback.  It\’s just the way it is.