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"Acknowledgment is always appreciated and requires no fancy wrapping." |
 "Alimony Blues" Prenups, not diamonds, are a girl's best friend as more women pay during divorce.    |
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
The Business Claus By Helayne Spivak One morning she felt a slightly sharper bite in the air and she knew it. "Oh, no," thought Mrs. Claus, "here comes another Christmas." Things hadn't been exactly merry in the Claus house over the past few winters, and she swore this year would be different. "I've had it, Santa," she said, drawing a new line in the snow. "All I hear every year is how much pressure you're under. You never notice just how much I do for you. This year, you're on your own." Assuming it was just her dashing, dancing hormones, Santa took off to his workshop to prepare for his busy season. There he was greeted by thousands of his loyal elves. But without his wife by his side to whisper their names in his ear, he had no idea who anyone was. Smiling and ho-ho-hoing his way through the crowd to his office, Santa found himself faced, for the first time, with bags and bags of unopened mail from children all over the world. In years past it was his wife who'd open them and sort them according to continent, country, state, town, province, street and zip code so all he had to do was review them and hand them over to the elf in charge of distribution. As Santa was starting to hyperventilate, one of the elves called from the factory to warn that the toy makers were threatening to strike unless they got the hot breakfast that union rules demanded (which had previously been home-cooked by you know who). At that very moment, on her way to her first holiday manicure, Mrs. Claus poked her head in the office to see how things were going. "You're a very important part of this business," he finally admitted. "You're welcome," she said as she called to cancel her appointment. MORAL: |
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