The annual THF winter party is a beloved tradition around here and pandemic or not, we weren’t about to let December pass without some sort of celebration. But what would that look like? After much discussion, we decided to call our beloved intranet up for party duty. Our intranet works hard for us every day, connecting us to one another with news, information, discussions, photos, and laughs, so it was a natural fit for hosting something casual and fun (that wasn’t another zoom call!). Over the last couple of weeks, we made and shared ugly sweaters, played a Hello party history Kahoot, perused the collections at the British Museum, made festive drinks, and threw 2020 into the bonfire. We even managed to figure out a way to share our traditional toasts! The big event was the surprise delivery to everyone in the company of an absolutely beautiful Glow Gifts box full of fancy local goodies. It wasn’t the same as all being in the same room, but the intranet newsfeed full of fun photos of the boxes arriving and being opened was wonderful and heartwarming and reminded us all that we have so much to be thankful for.
We also had to get creative to figure out how to organize and carry out our annual winter Give project this year. As usual, we sponsored a family through Michelle’s Love and pledged to fulfill their holiday wish list. This year we were matched with a lovely mom and her adorable daughter and we were so excited to get started shopping for them! How did we make this happen this year? The first thing we did was once again put our intranet to work as a means to share all of the necessary information with every THFer. We then utilized an online sign-up tool to allow folks to see and sign-up for wish list items. Gretchen graciously volunteered to have all items delivered directly to her house and to take on all of the wrapping. And what a lovely job she did! Finally, Lori and her daughter joined Gretchen to help out on the big delivery day. Our sponsored family was thrilled and we were humbled and honored to have been a part of making their holiday a little bit brighter.
And now that we’ve checked these last 2 annual events off of our list, we’re quite ready to put this year to bed. Bring on 2021!