It’s December! … the season of Holiday parties!
Last week was hubby’s work Holiday party. Leading up to this festive event, all the employees in hubby’s department were divided into different teams … and the teams were given the challenge of creating a food-sculpture piece together. All the food-sculpture pieces would be presented at the Holiday work party and winners would be selected.
As is typical with group projects, no one in hubby’s group offered any ideas or suggestions regarding the food-sculpture challenge. After all, who has time to worry about making a food sculpture for no particular reason, when we’re all overloaded and swamped at this time of year anyway.
The Holiday work party was drawing near … and hubby just couldn’t bear the thought of his team not submitting anything at all for the food-sculpture challenge. So, the night before the sculptures were due, hubby stopped by the grocery store on his way home from work and picked up a store-bought cake and several bags of candies.
Here you can see a photo of the “before” cake.
Hubby’s idea for the sculpture was to place all around the top of the cake Reese’s candies on which were written the names of all the different work projects which hubby and his department were working on.
Suspended over it all would be a bag labeled “Backlog” … and pouring out of the bag would be candies representing all the last-minute, unplanned projects which people think up and pile on top of the work already being done.
It was a brilliant idea!
I’m sure you too can probably relate … your “plate” is full of important tasks … so many important things needing to be done! It’s a lot! You’re barely keeping up … but then life keeps “dumping” more stuff onto your already full “plate.” Stuff at the last minute. Stuff you didn’t expect. Stuff that wasn’t planned for. Stuff! Just dumping out all over your life.
Hubby and I had the best time together creating this food-sculpture masterpiece! Hubby kept adding and adding more and more M&M’s to the “stuff” pouring out and covering the cake! When your life feels like that … might as well keep adding more and more M&M’s … because that’s what it feels like!
I couldn’t help but laugh at how absurdly accurate it was. I couldn’t help but laugh because the cake was so whimsical and funny. Here you can see hubby’s finished masterpiece. Epic … isn’t it!
The next morning hubby carefully transported his “team’s” sculpture masterpiece to work. As it turned out, there were a total of 6 food-sculpture entries submitted. Each one was clever … with tons of creativity!
There was a Seattle landscape … complete with a cucumber-veggie “Space Needle”, a grapefruit “Big Wheel”, and a frosted “Mt. Rainier.” Clever! There was a “Laptop computer” cake-sculpture. Clever! There was a “Dumpster fire” cake-sculpture, with the label: “Everything’s Fine!” Hilarious!
The first-place winner was a snow scene … with a gingerbread house, marshmallow snowmen, rosemary-twig “trees”, etc.
And coming in at second place was … hubby’s (aka hubby’s team’s) “Overflow of Work” cake!! Yay for hubby!! The fabulous second-place prize is coffee and donuts for everyone on the team. Haha!
I’m guessing lot of us would like the “cake” of our life to be like the “perfect” cake in the box which hubby & I started out with. No mess.
But as it turns out, probably just about all of us have lives that are a lot more like the cake hubby & I decorated for the competition. Our lives aren’t perfect. Our lives are “messy.” There is “stuff” pouring out all over our lives and spilling over the sides.
But it’s the “stuff” that makes the decorated cake so fun and interesting! It’s the “stuff” that adds color and life to the cake. It’s the “stuff” that causes people to smile, and even laugh. It’s the “stuff” that makes the cake a masterpiece.
So also, it’s the same with our lives. We might not necessarily want the “stuff.” But it’s the “stuff” that makes our lives dynamic and interesting. It’s the “stuff” that adds color and vitality to our lives. It’s the “stuff” that creates memories!
This Christmas, as “stuff” pours out all over the “cake” of your life … just know that it’s that very “stuff” which is turning your life into a masterpiece!
