‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through Parish Giving

Not an employee was frantic, not even a mouse clicking;

The decorations have been hung from the ceiling with care,

With hopes that they’d be still up there, and not on my chair;

The employees were enjoying the spread,

With visions of Philly pretzels dancing in their head;

And Jill in her Christmas sweater, and Pete in his Santa hat,  

They settled back at their desks, ready for an after lunch nap;

When outside in Trenton came such a thud!

We ran out from our desks to see what is was;

To the foyer we went, we ran in a flash,

Through the front door, luckily we didn’t crash!

And out in the parking lot, with carefully painted lines,

Are all the employee cars kept inside the spaces to avoid the street fines.

Upon a glare, I noticed a figure over there,

With eight courier vans all prepared,

I knew at this moment it must be Vicki with her fleet:

Now, Jack! Now, Bob! Now, David and Donny!

Now, Joe! Now, Ryan! Now, Pete and Danny!

To the parishes they shall go,

And deliver the bulletins before it snows!

Before we knew it, it had begun to flurry,

We all began to scurry.

Into the office we went, knowing the phones would begin to ring,

Churches asking if their Parish Giving insert would be in – it would make their pastor sing!

With her cheeks all rosy, Vicki said with glee:

“We happily inserted them carefully!”.

Back to work we went – call after call,

Churches thanked us all!

The packages have been delivered to rectories with care,

We all knew the bulletins would make it there.

The clock chimed 4:30,

And we left in a hurry!

As we shouted, “Merry Christmas!” to everyone,

And to everyone a good evening!