Wednesday, November 18, 2009

On Bonfires, Turkey Legs, Sore Feet, and Teddy Bears: The Holidays Officially Begin

Just when you think the holidays can’t get more interesting you find yourself volunteering to spend the evening after Thanksgiving sequestered away on the top floor of a luxury hotel surrounded by cookies, cinnamon almonds, hot spiced cider and stuffed animals. This happened shortly after nine this morning when Holly emailed the company-wide sign up sheet for our first annual Christmas Festival the evening after Thanksgiving. Diane and I surveyed it in my office, noting available shifts needing to be filled between 6pm and 7pm.

“Let’s do something together,” she said. “Try to find something fun.”

Fun wasn’t exactly the word that came to mind most immediately as I scrolled through the list. Two ‘Writing Letters to Santa’ helpers were needed in the Lobby. Sounded far too crayon intensive. Two ‘Cookie Frosting Assistants’ were needed in the restaurant. Sounded too messy. ‘Gingerbread Town Guides’ were also requested and that sounded as if you’d need to possess knowledge about the actual gingerbread houses other than knowing they came from the pastry kitchen so that didn’t work, either. Other remaining shifts entailed spending far too much time outside where the tree would be lit and cookies would be served from various tents and awnings. Too cold for that. I think we both realized simultaneously there was only one plausible option left and that’s how we wound up filling two empty slots as ‘Teddy Bear Helpers’, even going so far as to recruit Abby to sign up as the “Teddy Bear Greeter”. Surely, we were thinking, it couldn’t be too tough of a work detail and besides, city views from the rooftop lounge were beautiful, so it was the best choice we could make.

Not, that is, that we honestly wanted to make any choice at all. In past years the day after Thanksgiving was a ‘recovery day’ wherein anyone who’d worked as a Greeter/Seater at the Thanksgiving brunch in the ballroom took a day off. Not so much for purposes of reward but more for serious recovery for the feet. Seating 1,400-1,600 people over the course of five hours takes a real toll even if the time passes quickly because there’s always action of some kind to be observed. My personal favorites remain the year the kid’s buffet, a conglomeration of food stations at about my knee level, caught fire when a small boy reaching for yet one more ladle full of gummy bears knocked a chaff of wheat (we don’t decorate with that anymore) into the sterno can under a chafer and started a small bonfire controlled only when a banquet captain dashed over and effectively smothered it with his jacket. The kids were unscathed and probably thought it was a special effect we’d planned for their enjoyment. Also a fond memory is the year one guest walked to the chocolate fondue fountain with a full plate, extracted a turkey leg from the top of his prodigious pile of foodstuffs, thrust it into the cascading dark chocolate and proceeded after removing it to polish off at least half of it on the way back to his table. The next year brought the string quartet’s manager who, under the guise of ‘supervising his client’, idled near the kid’s buffet and continually slipped chicken fingers into his suit pockets. For whatever reason I was designated the person to remind him the food was for paying guests, not for just anybody, and while he was welcome to finish the chicken in his pockets he should really refrain from stuffing any more in there. You never know what you’re going to see and as tough as it can be on the feet it’s not the worst way to spend Thanksgiving Day until about four in the afternoon.

Over lunch today, Holly clarified a bit for me what exactly working with the teddy bears entailed and it doesn’t sound too bad. Between the three of us and the mascot for our NBA team, we should be able to handle touring families and kids through the suites where the bears will be lounging, watching TV, etc, ensuring they remain plumped up and don’t accidentally get knocked to the floor, buried under a cushion, or caught sampling items from the mini bars. It sounds, if you want to know the truth, kind of fun, and as all the bears will eventually be donated to children in need, it’s a great cause and certainly makes my point again that the oddest assignments have a strange habit of becoming part of any ‘normal’ work day. And besides, although I gave them up years ago, I was always a huge fan of stuffed animals, and never met a teddy bear I didn’t like.

1 comment:

  1. I know what you mean! I look so forward to the holidays myself but it never fails..I always choose uncomfortable shoes and my feet ache for days. This year, I am using my Topricin foot cream and not just bc it is natural but bc it really has helped me! Good Luck with yours :)

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