We ventured out this morning to Foods of All Nations to procure the fixings for the Boy Wonder's Chinese Feast. He keeps correcting me to say "Ancient Chinese Feast", which prompts me to joke about actual Thousand Year-Old Eggs. He never laughs.

Ahem. Anyway, we've got the dumpling wrappers, the hoisin sauce, the green tea and adzuki bean ice creams and other sundry necessities. The menu as it stands now includes dumplings, rice, stir-fried vegetables, "bbq" chicken legs and the ice creams. I offered to buy a box of fortune cookies, but he declined by admonishing me, "Mom, they're not really Chinese, you know. Fortune cookies are from from somewhere else. I don't know where. Not China, though!" I'm so proud. He's already got his own set of child-sized chopsticks, festooned with Power Rangers, so we're all set, aside from one strategic phone call designed to finalize the guest list.

I'm starting a new project in a couple weeks which brings my run of high-pressure holiday seasons to four. I know that many companies leave stuff until the end of the year because it's all just too much to deal with, bringing in outside people and overseeing them and all the explaining you have to do. And then there's all the stuff that consultants want one to do - analyze this, present that, report on the other. So the needs go unfilled because it's easier that way until the end of the fiscal year comes and someone say, "Crap! We need to spend that money. You know, to do that thing. Better call someone."

As always, I'm grateful for the work and pleased to have a good reputation. Really, it's awesome to know people who advocate for me joining their teams - for however short a time - and really invest in me and value what I can bring to them. I'm not a strategic-type consultant who sits around and thinks big thoughts, I'm more of a tactical kind of girl - the kind who can, you know, get stuff done. My end of the consulting world is by far the less glamourous and so when the phone rings it's a big day. For some reason, December has proven to be my busy season. The work will get done - of that I have no doubt - and my personal life will remain un-neglected, I insist upon that. Come January, I'm going to be shredded.

Who knew? December is my busy season. Wal-Mart, the Post Office, parking lot tree salesmen, and me.