Merry Christmas to all of you at Barts Electric. Now, apologies that I can’t be with you at your Christmas party, but you know Santa can’t be everywhere this time of year because I’m busy putting our lists together. Yes, checking them twice and figuring out who is nice and who is not, so I need elves out there helping me get everything and everyone ready for Christmas.

Yes, Tammy is one of my elves; she is helping take care of all of the Barts Electric children. Tammy also has her own elves helping her. Here is the story of what Tammy and her elves have been doing every Christmas for many, many years.

The military takes a lot of pride in the Christmas party and the celebration with the children, especially. She loves gathering the presents, buying the presents, choosing the presents that the parents have indicated that their kids like or want. She really goes for quality gifts; she likes making a good impression with the children, and she always does every year. And a good deal too, because she is the controller.

So, there was a time here, and we used to physically go out and shop, like shopping carts. Then she found the miracle of Amazon Prime. Right, yeah, right. So, starting right around Thanksgiving week, we start getting presents delivered here at the building. We gather them all up in one room, usually the big accounting room. It’s always just packed full of toys.

During the time between acquiring the toys and getting them to the Christmas party, we were accounting for them, checking them off the list, getting them wrapped in pretty paper, making sure everybody’s got their family gifts all together. So, there’s a lot of organizing, a lot of wrapping, a lot of care. Yeah, so really, it’s like Tammy and the whole accounting crew are Santa’s Little Helper, sort of. So, this whole gift-giving thing, yeah.

One year, we were in a really good on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It’s a lot of stuff that was kind of fun, that’s great. You know, it’s one thing about the Barts culture that’s always meant a lot to Barton, and I know Tammy, it really means a lot to her and you and everybody else as well. Just the fact that we’re not just going to give some random present, it’s going to be a tailored present specifically for that child. That means it really means a lot to us and to her, and she’s taking that super seriously through the year. She takes a great deal of enjoyment out of doing it too.

So, if somebody says their child just wants a gift card, that’s really not good enough for Tammy. She has to make sure they get something substantial they can hold, unwrap, and yeah, and love. So awesome, she takes a lot of pride in it, and she does a great job. Not only that, not only the presents, but the centerpieces for the tables. Yeah, that’s right. She and I go out and shop for those, make sure there’s something good, something that people will like. It can’t be subpar, it has to be good, it has to be great.

So, one year, we were wrapping presents in the conference room and put on Christmas Vacation, and we all sort of began to actually feel like Santa’s elves and really got into the spirit of it. That’s the way it is every year when we’re wrapping the gifts for the kids. We’re helping Santa out; we’re Barts elves. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you, Tammy, and all of Barts Electric. Peace on Earth and goodwill to all.