What a wonderfully hectic time of year. For us court reporters, it usually means a mad rush to get transcripts out - and usually they're expedited - before we can get our houses decorated, our shopping started, and our baking done. The four/five weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with all kinds of wonderful parties, musical events, pageants, and the like.
Our normal hustle and bustle gets "hustlier and bustlier" and we type A personalities thrive on this. Your court reporter friends are running full tilt and getting EVERYTHING done (and you probably cannot believe how we do it). And we're exhausted. But loving every minute of it. You see, we thrive on the challenge and the fast pace of life.
During the run-up to Christmas (or Hannukah or Solstice, whichever you celebrate) we're getting all our ducks in a row so that we can actually STOP. For a couple of days. Or even a week, if we're really lucky.
We know how important our time with family is and we relish it. After spending hours listening to domestic cases, criminal cases that break our hearts, and sometimes civil cases that numb our brains, we relish the time to just be. It recharges us. It gives us the incentive to work hard; we know that when we do stop work for a little while, we can PLAY hard.
So come Saturday evening, I know I'll be singing Christmas carols. Sunday morning we'll have a fabulous Christmas breakfast and a lovely time opening presents, and later on we'll attend a potluck with the other snowbirds at Mom's RV park. But mostly, we'll all enjoy the chance to just stop and BE.
I wish you all a lovely holiday, whichever you celebrate, and I hope that you enjoy all of your down time with family. Truly, this season affords us the opportunity to slow down and be with the people who mean the most to us. Joy to the World.
