Needing some hang time before the year end office meeting, the Office Crew decided to watch ELF. They unanimously decided their next recruit will be named Francisco That’s Fun To Say, and that they all must learn to fly, a must on the coming years agenda.

Story called the meeting to order. Ceramic Bowls, lots and lots of handmade ceramic bowls to try out. Testing, and more testing, drinking out of, eating out of, and everything in between.

After an hour of repeating the tests they concluded that all the food tasted like food out of a ceramic bowl, and that water tasted like water out of a ceramic bowl.

First agenda item complete – check!

Second item to discuss was Rhumbs puppy antics last winter solstice  when she took on the Fancy Holiday Wizard and said some not so nice things. She thought it was settled, she thought she handled it well, but maybe not.

Now that she is a young adult she understands she was far too young last year to be flying around the sky, at all hours of the night, with eight or more strangers, while breaking into peoples homes she didn’t even know.

So Rhumb has spent the past year catching up on stories about this time of year and had the realization that she had been asking the wrong guy for the job all along. You see, Odin with Sleipnir his eight legged horse, not the Fancy Holiday Wizard, is the guy she needed to be talking with this whole time. So, many many apologies for the misunderstanding and Bon Voyage Fancy Pants!

A present? A present for me?

No, said Story, this is for you to give to the Fancy Wizard, you do need to say a proper sorry, and this would be a nice way to do it. We’ve filled it with a dog toy and liver. If he can’t use it with his own dogs he can give it to someone else.

Are you freaking kidding me?

I need to think about this for a minute, you two get on with another item on the agenda, this may actually take longer than a minute, maybe like a super long while.

Story & $eeker decided to wait, nothing, not a single damn thing with Rhumb, ever took a super long while.

After her self imposed personal moment under the table, Rhumb decided that a gift was a good thing, minus the hedge hog, he was going to stay. The liver and all the other goodies could go.

Rhumb felt this was a good compromise, after all he apparently had more Elves than he needed if he could afford to send Buddy to NYC. She truly felt he was more than capable of having his own hedge hog made, in house, The End, Let’s move along shall we.

Story and $eeker did not agree. They asked if she would like more time under the table to rethink her decision.

No …

See you on the flip side, adios, please tell the Jolly guy Ho Ho Ho and all that stuff … I need to go call Odin, let him know I am still available, see what he thinks, options and all. Enjoy the rest of your meeting, this has been super productive for me so far!

$eeker didn’t think a half gift was worth giving, and the ribbon and packaging were a bit damaged, so he decided to remove the liver from the bag, his way of being a Team player.

Story the perennial leader, the most honest and kind one of the bunch, and the glue that has held the shit together in the office for over eleven years, decided to break the news of his official retirement from the Office. The last item on the agenda for the year.

Story retired from active duty, in the field of competition, and helping other dogs to trust again nearly four years ago, but now it is time for him to retire from the Office too.

He said that like all old men, he has few hobbies outside of his work, he has loved his work, work friends, and all that comes with it. He is certain he will suck at retiring for a good long while, but like all the other old men, he is going to try painting for a bit, try out his artistic side. He has always loved music, but painting seems a bit more reasonable. And he knows all too well how handsome he looks in a scarf.

And he let everyone know that he wants to do more hiking, not super long or super far, but in his favorite places. He loves the high desert in the winter, and the forests with creeks and meadows in the summer. He wants to think about things, smell things, walk on the earth a bit more. He is looking forward to more adventures in a peaceful kind of way.

He told everyone that his life has been awesome, well lived, not a day he can think of where he had a real complaint, and he has more to do and more to learn, but in different ways now.

He is uncertain who will be leading the meetings now, running the office. $eeker is not an option nor are the thirty two voices in his head. Rhumb is shooting for world domination and has been fairly preoccupied with those goals, and Story has no doubts about her achieving this. Is she ready, is she steady, can she hold it together under tough times? Maybe. But then again, she has a light so bright inside of her, she just might be THAT one. But then again, again, she is bouncing around the house with the gifted hedge hog right now …

So tonight, Story is looking forward to his old friends visit, sharing some milk and cookies, bumping noses with his reindeer friends, and sitting by the fire and talking about times of past. And maybe having one or two more cookies together.

So from all of us, to all of you, the Merriest of Winter Wishes and Love, Nancy