By Allison Perkins

Holiday potlucks in the breakroom are coming, are you ready?

I’ve learned there are two types. First, everyone brings a dish and the smorgasbord sits in the breakroom and is visited by one or two people at a time since everyone is so busy typing away to get done in time to leave for vacation.

Second, the entire office shuts down and gathers for fellowship around the food which can be a hoot at the right companies or uncomfortable at best.

So, whether you love or loathe mandatory company fun time, as it is called in the military, you need to find a way to play along.

First, don’t bring the weird food. You may absolutely love an exotic dish you discovered at your last overseas duty station and have mastered recreating it. That doesn’t mean everyone is willing to give it a try. The less complicated, the better.

Second, don’t feel pressured to cook. Most commissaries have a fabulous bakery and deli. Around the holidays they are flush with dessert trays and meat and cheese spreads. Save yourself the stress, just buy something. 

Third, try not to be a Grinch. It’s the holidays. It’s busy. Everyone is carrying an extra load to try to get done before the door is locked for the week. Try to take a few minutes to be social and make an appearance before you duck back into the cubicle.

And if you are the potluck planner, a few tips for you as well.

First, please, let people know early, not the night before or even a few days before. If you don’t know how hard it is to get to the grocery store for a single item, ask a military spouse whose husband is deployed. We’ve gone without milk at our house for a week simply because I didn’t feel like dragging all the kids into the store after hours to get it.

Second, don’t schedule the get-together the week of the holiday – you are simply asking for meltdowns at this point.

Finally, absolutely never ever make it mandatory – to bring a dish or participate in the festivities. The holidays can be a complicated ball of emotions for people at the holidays, especially military families. Give employees the space they need to deal with what is happening in their household without extra pressure to be merry and bright.

Happy potlucking!

I think we can safely say that I am about as far from where I was when I started writing this blog. As if I were on the dark side of the moon.

I was a mom, going back to school. Almost overnight I became a chef’s assistant, traveling the country.

Then, my job fell apart hours before we were supposed to leave due to logistical issues. However, it was an amicable split, with the chef understanding the vast insurmountable technical issues we were going to continue to have running the tour the way he had originally intended.

For his part he will return to the planning stages. He left with the understanding that while he was not going to run the full tour he will be doing a few select shows over the remainder of the season.

Meanwhile, I will research to see if this plan, with some fundamental changes, can be made to better suit another chef: me.

I continue to be on the road every day, researching, learning and planning.

It will be my kitchen. And I am, by far, my hardest boss.

My relationship to everyone and everything close to this endeavor has changed. The only way this business will be successful is if I am personally successful in choosing the right team to make it happen.

I am well aware that I am not a financial person or a marketer, or even particularly personable when I get motivated, so I know I have to have other people to help me. Finding people as dedicated to this as I am, who can show me in actions that they can hang, is going to be tough. Words are easy, commitment is really hard. Especially in this industry. Either you show up and do it or you don’t. Excuses don’t cut it.

I am lucky that I have a large network of friends already in this business of travelling festival work whose booths are dissimilar enough that we can exchange ideas and information without jeopardizing each other’s profit margins.

Having that insight is going to be key to making sure I don’t make too many stupid rookie mistakes. I also hate to reinvent the wheel, so if there are people out there who are willing to help me with constructive criticism, I am going to take advantage of that knowledge.

With this project there has always been a finite time line. Now is no different. What has changed is what I am presenting and to whom.

In order to be ready to jump on the midsized festival circuit, I need to have recipes ready by mid-February, 2017. My full setup, truck and traveling kitchen, needs to be ready to roll by the end of March.

In the mean time I have to source everything from festivals to apply to, funding and grants, bison hearts, trade associations, organic buckwheat, and trailer specs for gross tow weights for a diesel truck versus an unleaded fifteen passenger van and health department regulations for at least 15 states.

All from a 21-foot RV. While driving from Colorado to upstate New York and back again. Repeatedly.

I like to meet insurmountable technical challenges with a force of nature team united in vision, goal, and song. I am working hard to build just that.

Have you noticed on your last coffee run that many of the Starbucks employees have an American flag on their apron?

Below their neatly embroidered name there is also a designation: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Spouse.

To date, there are more than 6,000 Starbucks employees nationwide who are also veterans and military spouses. However, new aprons are not the only perk the company has given military families.

The company has also opened more than 28 Starbucks Military Family Stores. These are Starbucks coffee houses opened in military neighborhoods and operated primarily by veterans and spouses. Each Military Family Store also partners with a local non-profit to offer services and assistance to military families in the community.

The company has also taken the lead in trying to bridge the gap between military and civilian as thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines leave the uniform behind and join the civilian workforce. Starbucks penned “The Field Guide to Engaging the Military Community.” A basic how to for civilian employers that includes military lingo, rank structure, best practices for hiring military folks, goals to set in the first 30 days of employment and ways to better connect with military customers in the community.

Starbucks has set a goal of hiring 10,000 military spouses and veterans by 2018. Want to be one of them?

Check out their career opportunities at http://www.starbucks.com/careers/veterans

PCS season is coming.

And leaving, is tough.

I’m not talking about prepping for the moving company, making that long drive or flight or collecting all the medical, school and military records. I’m talking about leaving.

Walking away from friends.

Visiting your favorite local restaurant for the last time.

Turning the key in the door to a house you may have felt the most comfortable in.

Looking around this small piece of the Earth and knowing that you may never step foot here again. Ever.

It’s hard.

I’ve had several friends PCS this month. Watching the feed on their Facebook page was heartbreaking. They loved where they lived. They logged every last meal, laugh, moment.

And then, the photo of the airport gate.

Military life is, I believe, one of the toughest lives for a family. The best military wives I know understand that nothing is forever, and they embrace every single place they live – the good, the bad and the horrible. They find something spectacular to love, even in the most difficult of places.

The most successful military wives find that there is always pain when they leave. They worked hard to build a life here and be happy. That is hard to leave behind. In other places, they literally feel they need to be dragged away because they just don’t want to go.

I hope the people they leave behind, the neighbors who worry about the impact of the military on their quiet lives and the naysayers who believe we are all trouble, understand that we take a piece of them with us everywhere we go. That we have happy memories. That they are part of the stories we tell, the laughs we share and the memories we tell our children when they can’t quite remember a name or place.

They have helped create the fabric of our life and we are forever grateful.

So as you PCS this year, stop amid the craziness of the preparations. Walk to your favorite place in town. Have lunch with a friend you are leaving behind. Take a deep breath and look around. Soak it in.

You may never see this place again. Take a moment to make sure you carry it with you. Always.

Are you snowed in? Did you go to work anyway?

When you look across the spectrum of employers, there are few that will shut their doors due to weather. Big box stores such as Walmart and Target will be operating, as will gas stations, banks and any other business that depends on customers walking through the door to make money. Many professional offices will remain open as well.

So, what do you do?

First, don’t call it before it happens. This week Fort Bragg and many school systems declared Friday a day off before the first flake fell. The administrators there have that power. You do not. Wait until the next morning to see just how bad the storm is and if you really cannot make it to work without risking serious injury.

Second, know your employer’s bad weather policy. Some employers may say that work is required unless the county is placed under a state of emergency. At this point, emergency officials require all unnecessary travel to end, meaning you cannot travel to or from work.

Also, some employers may allow you to use a vacation day if you feel the weather is too dangerous to drive in. Again, check your company policy.

And, some lucky employees may have an option to work from home in miserable weather. If your company allows this, be certain to pack accordingly and bring your work home each night if you know the forecast calls for questionable conditions in the morning.

A deep snow forecast is fabulous, when you are 8-years-old. When you are 28, and above, it just means a long, cold, miserable commute. Be prepared to don that hat and gloves, stock up on the coffee and get going.

Hopefully, it will also mean a quiet day on the job while everyone else waits it out at home.

Every January Forbes Magazine names the top 10 workplace trends they expect us to see in the coming year.

See the full list here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/11/01/10-workplace-trends-for-2016/#2715e4857a0b9f54c74222c1

For 2016, number three on their list is workplace flexibility. Employees want it. Employers need it. Now, let’s make it happen.

Forbes said that Americans now work an average of 47 hours per week. Studies find that 64 percent of managers expect to be able to reach their employees outside of the office during personal time. And still another study shows that employees are willing to leave a good job, if another position offers more flexibility.

Absolutely.

And, it is a must for military spouses.

I’ve worked from home and on the road for about 15 years. I would argue that it is harder than working in an office during set hours. Your work is always constantly accessible, often right on your kitchen table. You want to take just one more phone call each night, and then another, and another. I’ve even caught myself working into the wee hours of the night to make up for the guilt I felt for spending 30 minutes folding laundry that day while I simultaneously read emails.

 But I would also argue that despite the fact that I know I work more than 40 hours a week while working from home, I’m happier. I get more done. My work is better.

At home, there are no gossiping office mates to suck up my time. There are no phones and fax machines and printers buzzing and whirring and creating havoc. At home, the room is quiet. I spread all my papers and computers across my workspace and get to it.

High speed internet, texting and videochat all mean that my boss can contact me instantly, if not quicker than if I was in the office. Lines of communication are open through the evening and into the weekend, meaning my hours are easily moved around family activities.

And the best part, I can manage the small household tasks that build up over the course of a nearly 50 hour workweek spent outside the home. Laundry is done every day, and folded on my lunchbreak. Dinner is popped into the oven on time and I don’t have to wonder if I will make it home before the school bus.

If my employer suddenly ended our ability to work from home, I would absolutely leave my job. The salary at my current employer is not as high as others, but the ability to work from home, often on my own timeframe, has as much value to me as the actual pay.

Forbes believes that in the coming years, every company will be forced to create a flexibility policy that allows for more telecommuting opportunities. The big push? The technology driven millennials, 80 million strong, will begin having children.

More than 60 years ago, U.S. troops were kind to a little boy in Heidelberg, Germany.

This year, he remembered them and repaid their kindness, in the form of $16.5 million worth of scholarships for military children.

Hans-Peter Wild, a billionaire who developed and marketed the citrus fruit drink, Capri Sun, donated the sum to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. The group provides financial support to children of Marine and Navy veterans to attend college.

Officials said the gift will be spread among 3,000 scholarship recipients over the next 10 years.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Wild said, “The American military saved Germany from the Nazis. They forget so quickly what the Americans have done for us.”

His aim is to remember that sacrifice by continuing to honor those who came to his nation’s aid.

“Education is the most important thing you can give a child,” Wild said. “While America has the best education in the world, it also has the most expensive education in the world. To help the children of Marines is a very good thing.”

The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation has provided more than 35,000 scholarships to military children since it was founded in 1962. This year roughly 200 students will receive need-based aid ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 from Wild’s gift.

The donation is the largest the foundation has ever received.

To learn more about the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, visit https://www.mcsf.org/

Once upon a time our family used to run from holiday event to holiday event.

We had to see the lights downtown. Uptown. Out of town.

We had to have cocoa with Santa, Rudolph and the Grinch, all at different venues and times. Then, some local brainiac decided this would be a fabulous time of year for a tea party with Elsa. Grrrrr.

There was ice skating here, cookie making there and ornament creating everywhere.

By the end of it all, I was ready to be done. Christmas had become a time of exhaustion, not joy.

And I knew I wasn't alone when my friend posted on his over-zealous for the holiday wife's Facebook page this sentiment: "Not to be a grinch, but I really hate Christmas. All it is, is work."

Yes.

Double and triple, yes.

So, we decided this year, to dial back Christmas. And it has been joyous.

We waited until the second week, my goodness, I know, the SECOND week of December, to get a Christmas tree. It took us three days to get it fully decorated.

I haven't made a single Christmas cookie yet. I know, I am killing some of you. Instead, we have made three kinds of, may I say, absolutely hilarious, Star Wars themed cookies.

And it was fun. They weren't perfect. Some of them looked kind of gross, but I wasn't worried about having so many dozen, for so many bags, to go to so many people. We just baked. 

We'll make some homemade ornaments, next week, when we get around to it. If we get around to it.

And the Christmas cards, they've been purchased, I have the stamps, but no one's world will collapse if our card arrives on December 26 or, dare I say it, January 1. In fact, we bought cards that say, "Happy  New Year" instead of "Merry Christmas" to allow for some wiggle room.

We stopped stressing over Christmas. We stopped worrying about Christmas.

And, it still came.

Our kids are excited. Our house is warm and cozy and joyful. We've had just as much fun and made just as many memories this year attending two events as opposed to years previous when we were out every single night.

And most importantly, none of us are ready for it to be over.

Relax. Enjoy your holiday. It makes it so much sweeter.

Christmas is here. Is your wallet looking a little thin?

The worst gift you can give yourself is to take out a payday loan to bolster your holiday spending.

A payday loan is a small cash loan given to an individual based on the fact that the loan is expected to be repaid with their next paycheck. Sounds simple, right?

It's a trap.

When you pay back the loan, you are not simply giving back the $200 you borrowed. These lenders charge an average interest rate of 390 - 780 percent. Non-profits who track the businesses have found payday lenders who charge as much as 1,335 percent in interest. They also note that 75 percent of these lenders do not advertise their interest rate to clients.

The loan is due upon your next paycheck, so there is no installment payment plan over a series of months.

If the loan is not paid back with your next paycheck, you will receive more interest and a finance charge to extend the loan amount.

And ta da. You have officially been trapped into a repetitive cycle that will cost you thousands more than the original few hundred you originally borrowed. 

Military.com reports that on average, payday loan customers end up with eight to 12 loans each year.

The website says the Consumer Federation of America, a non-profit advocacy group, has studied the payday loan industry for the past 10 years and said the industry meets the criteria for predatory lenders who have abusive collection practices, balloon payments with unrealistic repayment terms, equity stripping associated with repeated refinancing and excessive fees, and excessive interest rates that may involve steering a borrower to a higher-cost loan.

Found one that says they simply cash checks? They may be lying. The CFA also found that these businesses misrepresent themselves as check cashers but they are not. Instead, they hold your check until payday and charge you interest for cashing it then.

So, when you are checking off your shopping list this year, the best way to determine what your nearest and dearest will receive, is to spend only the cash you have allotted for the season. Sure, that may not be much. But is a new game system really worth a year-long debt that amounts to thousands of dollars above the purchase price? Shop carefully. Don't let the holidays ruin your household finances.

The muppets of Sesame Street have been long-time supporters of military families.

They’ve created several videos to help children deal with deployment, PTSD and battlefield injuries. They’ve toured military bases around the world every year to give kids a free, fun-filled afternoon with all those furry monsters.

Now, the Muppets are here for military families, 24-7, through a new website and set of apps launched this week.

The site, Sesame Street for Military Families, gives parents an additional set of tools to help navigate their children through stresses of deployment, homecoming, relocation, injury and grief.

Under each topic for parents there are tips on how to handle the situation and where to find resources. For kids, there are videos about those topics, hosted by Elmo and friends, as well as coloring sheets and activities, all related to each military family topic.

The coloring sheets in particular are perfect for young military children. There are sheets that help them express their feelings and draw a picture of how they are feeling. There is a sheet of moving box stickers featuring their favorite Muppets so they can label their own toys. There are Veterans’ Day pages and a page that is a “pocket full of hearts” so they can draw pictures for their deployed family member and send them a “pocket full of hearts.”

There is also a music making program that allows children to choose instruments, recordings and voice overs to make their own music.

The website is an extension of Sesame Street’s highly successful, “Talk, Listen, Connect” initiative.

Log in, click on and let the muppets help carry you through the stress and joy that comes with being a military family.

Find the website here: http://www.sesamestreetformilitaryfamilies.org/