December Insanity

It has been a VERY slow year for most real estate lawyers, including me. For that reason, I guess I thought this would not be a “normal” December at the office. I was wrong.

In a typical year, December is the busiest month for lawyers who specialize in commercial real estate transactions. Our clients typically insist that their deals — loans, acquisitions/sales, whatever — MUST close before year-end. They want these deals on their books by December 31 for various reasons, often tied to the calculation of their year-end bonuses.

Whatever the reason, this has always translated into hectic, high-stress days for me in December. Since I got out of law school, I haven't had any time to do any Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.

I thought this year would be different.

It's not.

Fortunately, we took care of shopping for Benjamin last month, so he has already received his package of gifts, which he says are stowed in his locker on the Nimitz (somewhere in the Arabian Sea). I simply was not going to allow him to spend Christmas out on the ocean, thousands of miles from home and family, with no gifts. So that one got done.

And we took care of Matthew and Kahi and the boys. Since they're so far away (in Hawaii, where Matthew's submarine is stationed), we couldn't wait too long to get their gifts bought and shipped. So they have their package. Except for the one item we bought for Mikey but forgot to put in the package.

But I'm still going to have to go out on Thursday, brave the crowds, and find some gifts for those who live here in Texas.

Next year I'm going to start early. Really.

In the meantime, I probably won't be posting to this blog again until AFTER the December insanity has passed.