Ornamental Warfare

You probably ask yourself at this moment how the words "ornamental" and "warfare" can possibly go together... Let me show you! ;-)

The Monday after Thanksgiving, I was greeted by a Christmas tree in the office. The Christmas tree was out of plastic and pre-lit. One ornament dangled on one of the branches... A Clemson ornament. The next couple of days, this ornament was constantly moved to be backside of the tree by the Carolina fans in the department. A couple of days later, a Bayern Munich ornament was added to the tree which was consequently constantly moved by the VfL Stuttgart fan in the office. But the VfL Stuttgart fan is also a Clemson fan and the Bayern Munich supporter also a Carolina supporter... Then we have another Clemson fan that is also a Bayern Munich fan and by now your head should be spinning. Basically, since the tree was up it was a constant battle between fan bases and the smack talk that accompanied the back and forth made the whole football season look like a dress rehearsal. Yesterday, a Carolina ornament was added and five minutes later, I took all three ornaments down and returned them to their owner in order to finally silence the smack talk. Now the tree is all decorated and looks very pretty! Those are all recycled ornaments that have gotten the boot at the home Christmas tree and now find a new purpose as our office tree decoration.

When I walked in the office yesterday morning, the Bayern ornament had made a miraculous return to the tree. Once again I took it down and it is now stored in a safe location until January when I will return it to the rightful owner.

Beside the inter-office warfare we also have a competition going for Christmas decorations per departments on site. Especially the competition between finance and accounting is getting more and more heated... May the best tree win!