As I am sitting by myself this evening in my dark house with Christmas lights, candles, and Christmas music I am fully enjoying this peaceful time to relax. Even if it's only for an hour or two, man is it needed. I have never before found Christmas to be a stressful time, I love the decorating, present buying, baking, music, lights, and celebrations. People often say Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday because it is all about family and food without the stress of presents and parties and I'm finally seeing the truth behind that statement. Now, don't get me wrong, Thanksgiving will never be my favorite holiday, in fact it is third behind Christmas and Halloween. But I at least understand the statement now.
I'm trying to decide what is different about this year...and I'm thinking it is the job. Last year I was working, but I didn't even decorate because Taylor was deployed and I was going back to the States the middle of December to spend Christmas at home. By going home, I missed a lot of the hustle and bustle of prepping for the holiday. And the year before, I was not working yet at Christmas, so I had plenty of time to get everything decorated, presents bought, wrapped, shipped, and then some.
I also see all the people who have given so generously to me for so many years. Who go out of their way to ensure I have a special Christmas and I want to be able to give back in the way they have given to me for so long. Where to go, what to get...and make sure it is sent in enough time to arrive by Christmas. The last part is the big kicker over here. But as a positive and a negative, this will be my last Christmas with the concern of overseas shipping time constraints...at least for a little while.
And the final straw that is currently breaking this camel's back is our program currently going through accreditation. This happens every 5 years and this happens to be the lucky year! So we are going through documents, Air Force Instructions (AFI) guidelines, Unannounced Inspection criteria, Air Force Manuals, Operating Instructions, policy letters, and program procedures to find documentation and evidence that we meet all standards set forth by the Council on Accreditation. We are creating and evaluating risk management plans, long term plans, Continuous Quality Improvement plans, producing verification letters that we operate ethical financial practices, etc, etc. And our self study with all 60 something documents must be in the hands of the Council on Accreditation by 30 December. Which means it is being mailed out this week with high hopes the mail is speedy! We had our Youth specialist from US Air Force Europe headquarters in town from Germany all last week working with myself, our director, and our trainer every day for COA assistance. I spent a fun 8 hours today (Saturday) at work uploading and creating documents and probably have another 16 hours to go. While there is never a good time to add a few hundred hours of work to your plate, December is certainly NOT the month. But, within the next week it will be mailed off and out of our hands! Or until they come back with questions requesting more evidence. But it will be such a relief to have this portion completed. Our next task will be to gather our on-site documents to have ready when the endorsers come to visit our program in March. Phew. Hallelujah!
And in between work and accreditation I have work Christmas parties for myself and Taylor, friend Christmas parties, farewell dinners, Airman Cookie drives, potluck dishes, and raffle presents to create. Such a festive but exhausting Christmas this year. And just as I'm feeling incredibly overwhelmed, very appropriately timed, I just opened a daily advent reflection book written by church members back home that arrived in the mail this week. Clearly I need to get over myself and my busy schedule and reflect on the reason this day is celebrated to begin with.
Merry Christmas to you all!!
