Seeing the Christmas decorations going up started a “buzz” among those who could see them. By the time Ole and his kids packed up I saw a number of the tellers gathered around Trish. It had been a while since the old “Polish Mafia” had been active but at first blush it looked like they were at it again. It didn’t take long to find out what the gathering had been about as Trish followed me right to my desk. The big question was “When and where was the Christmas party going to be held?"
The party at the end of the previous year had been misinterpreted as a Christmas party. It wasn’t... or at least it wasn’t intended to be. It was a retirement party for the outgoing president. He’d been at the bank for over 25 years and the Trustees wanted to make sure he got the recognition so wanted all the employees to be there to celebrate with him. It just happened to be during the Christmas season and that’s where the confusion came in. There never had been a Christmas party for the employees. I remember when I found out about the lack of a party and thought it strange. When I asked why I was told ”Because we just don’t.“ However, I wasn’t in a position to question the subject any further.
When I told Trish there wasn’t one planned she didn’t hesitate to ask if the employees could have a little gathering in the lobby before Christmas so all the employees could wish each other a ”Merry Christmas“. Before I could open my mouth she said that some had even volunteered to bring cookies. Then, with a slight smile on her face, she said it would really be great if they could have a Secret Santa where everybody would get a little gift. Her words came out like bullets but she didn’t have to sell me. I, personally, was all for it as I believed strongly in the good will of the Christmas season. Now it had been thrust upon me to ”sell“ the idea to senior management.
Come to find out it was the old president who was the ”Scrooge“. I took the idea to Hobie who immediately took the idea to Bert, the current president. Within a half hour approval was given but with a definite surprise added. The president volunteered to personally fund the ”treats“, as he called them. And, he also suggested that someone be found to play Santa to give out the gifts. When I told Trish the news I think I saw the most positive reaction from her that I’d seen in the almost two years I’d been at the bank and she promised that she’d find a Santa.
Hobie had suggested that we put a cap on the amount spent on the gifts keeping in mind that everybody was ‘stretched a little thin” due to the season. He threw out a number between 3 and 4 dollars which seemed fair. He also suggested that the Secret Santa be a voluntary thing. Then, looking directly at Bret’s back, stated that with his round shape, he be tapped to be the Santa. I’d had the thought but wasn’t willing to express it. I knew Trish would take care of it and leave me out of it. Because time was short before Christmas it was decided that the “get together” (not a Christmas party) would be held at 4pm in exactly a week.
I’d wanted to call Elle during the day to see if she’d “dribbled” but didn’t want to make too much of the situation so held off. When at home I tried to be as casual as possible hoping that she’d volunteer some information. When it hadn’t happened by the time she was about to put supper on the table I finally asked. To the point... it hadn’t gone well. She’d found that in walking around and with all the movements she made, the cotton insert had worked its way to the back of the crotch and bunched up. Her quote, and I remember it well, “it felt like I had a load in my pants”. She’d taken them off so the concept of having the cotton insert absorb “dribbles” was still untested.
Later, while she was putting the kids to bed I retrieved the panties from the hamper and could see what she was talking about. I could also see that the opening in the crotch that I’d made was now much larger. When she came into the bedroom she acknowledged that when she was trying to get the cotton insert back in place she’d ripped the crotch making it like a flap. I wasn’t too happy about that so decided to put the idea away for a little while.
Later, when Elle was preparing her sleeping “package”, I noticed that she’d picked up the experimental panties in one hand and had a sanitary pad in the other. I didn’t say anything but watched as she proceeded to stuff the pad between the two layers of nylon that made up the crotch. Then she held it up to show me. The look on her face was one of satisfaction, as if to say look what I just created. Before I could say anything she slipped the panties on and announced that it should take care of the “dribble“ problem. Even though my first reaction was negative I didn’t say anything because I was actually proud of her for coming up with the idea on her own. The next morning I asked if she was going to wear her creation all day. She had a smile on her face and shot back a quick and sassy ”Of course!“.
The mood at work was extremely cheerful the next day. The sign up list for being a part of the Secret Santa program was over 90 percent. Trish was in charge of getting the names of the participants into envelopes so that the employees could find out who they were going to get. Because there were some people who were on vacation it was decided to wait until Monday to see if they wanted to join in. That news didn’t make some people all that happy because they were anxious to know the name of their person. It was exciting to see how much interest had been generated by just this simple act of having a ”get together”.
Back at home Elle had some news for me. She’d finally “dribbled”, legitimately, and the pad had done the job. She was so excited that she called Sandy to tell her but she couldn’t come over because Johnnie’s JV team had an away game and they were leaving right after school let out. Elle was disappointed but Sandy had promised that she’d call when she was free and they’d get together. Elle was actually a bit giddy over the success of her idea. Actually, I was too.
To be continued...
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