A huge sigh of relief

If you'd been in the office on Friday (Dec 15) you'd have heard a huge sigh of relief when I finished packaging up the last of our grant applications to take down to the post office. From mid-November to mid-December, it's the busiest, craziest, and most hectic and chaotic time of the year for me. Most people think it's because of all the Christmas orders we send out at this time of the year; well, that's only part of it. It starts with getting sales material ready for our Kate Walker sales conference in Vancouver at the end of November, which includes having finished catalogue copy and sales material of our Spring '07 books for our 15 Canadian sales reps. Then it's on to our Canada Council block grant application which is due December 1st: six very full pages of writing about our company and the books we've produced and will be producing next year along with a ton of financial forms to fill out. Part of the process means working with our accountants to get our fiscal year end finished off, so I can fill in the financial information. And this year, add in my trip to Victoria in early December for a few meetings with our publicist and authors about the new and exciting grant from Canada Council for special project funding (SOFI - Supplementary Operating Funds Initiative) and a meeting with Rosemary Neering and Government House officials to show various samples of special editions they can choose from for the Government House book we're publishing this spring, and then back to Winlaw just in time to send our Spring catalogue off to the printers, work on the BC Arts Council block grant application (due Dec 15), write Christmas cards, do up a brand new contract for illustrators, and work on the CC SOFI grant which was also due Dec 15. Then add to the mix, Joanne, my main employee, was very ill and ended up having an emergency appendectomy on December 15!
Every year I worry that we'll get snowed in and I won't be able to get to the post office to mail the grant applications off or that the power will go off before I get everything finalized on the computer and printed out. So on Thursday night (Dec 14) Jim and I were both wide awake at 2 am; he was worrying about all the snow coming down and was thinking he should go outside and shovel it before the rain that was forecast started coming down. And I was worrying that with all the heavy snow, the power would go off and I wouldn't be able to download the copy edited version of the applications our superb copy editor, Dawn, had so very diligently worked on all day and night and emailed to me after I went to bed. So we both got up and Jim lead the way to our office building, shovelling the walkway, with me following in my pj's and snow boots. I worked for just over an hour formatting both of the copy edited grant applications, writing the cover letters, and then photocopying all the financial pages I'd previously filled out. The lights were flickering the entire time but fortunately the power stayed on!
So, phew, it's all done and a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I can concentrate on getting the last minute rush orders out the door the same day as receiving them, clean up the very messy office, finish sewing a couple of Christmas presents, do a bit of Christmas baking, send off some last minute Christmas presents, and decorate the house (and clean it too). Oh, and Gus (the handsome cover model for our Spring '07 catalogue) wants to go for a walk on our property with Jim and I to find a small Christmas tree for the house. He can't wait to put all his Christmas presents under it!