Absence Excuse . . .

I have been absent from this space for 2½ weeks.  The excuse is an easy one – we have been swamped.  The sale we had over the Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday Weekend was more than we ever imagined.  When that happens in a small company, you say a prayer of thanks, batten down the hatches, and get to work.  So we did – started with the first order that arrived a few minutes after midnight on Thanksgiving morning and worked forward.

Debbie and Patti take great pride in filling your orders quickly, but this was more than they could handle by themselves.  So Gary and I jumped in – filled and boxed orders, transferred merchandise from the store to the mail center, and more.  And we nearly attacked the UPS and FedEx drivers when they made deliveries (especially from Spellbinders or Ranger – it meant more orders were going to get completed and shipped).  I usually made a run to the post office just before it closed at 7:00, so it was often between 7:30 and 8:00 before I got home.  Am I complaining?  Not for a second – we’ll probably do it again next year.  And we thank you very much.

But some things had to be sacrificed, and this blog was one of them.  Now that things are calming down, I have a few stories to share over the next couple of weeks.  Here is one of them . . .

Last Friday, my nephew Conner graduated with honors from Miami University.  It was important to me that I be there – I missed his high school graduation 3½ years ago because I was away at a show that weekend.  So I picked up Dad (Mom got the OK from her oncologist to go as well, but was concerned about sitting with several thousand people in the middle of cold and flu season) and we drove over to Oxford to join my brother Blake and his wife Lisa, their younger son Tyler and his girlfriend Rachel, Lisa’s parents Ron and Mary Jo, and her brother Kevin.  And we were one of the few families that followed the instructions to not clap and make a bunch of noise when our graduate’s name was announced!  We also got a special bonus – about five years ago, Miami started a tradition of inviting that year’s “Effective Educator” recipient to give the Graduation Address at the Fall Commencement.  This year, it was a professor in the history department who also happened to be Conner’s advisor.  During her address, she mentioned four graduates by name – and one of them was my nephew.

Another story may come tomorrow night during my family’s annual “Christmas Eve Eve” gathering.  If it does, you’ll hear from me again on Saturday.  If not, I’ll go ahead and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  You are all very special and we appreciate you very much.

One other thing – Mom is doing great.  Her fourth chemo treatment was last Wednesday.  She has quite the collection of hats – I still haven’t seen the same one twice.  And this weekend, we have a lot of reasons to be thankful.