Octonodecembuary

I forgot that Preseident's Day was the official end to Octonodecembuary! What is Octonodecembuary? It's the name I have given for the incredible rush of holidays and birthdays that seems to occur between Halloween and President's Day. You have Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, New years Eve, New year's Day, my wife's birthday, Martin Luther King Day, Valentine's day, and President's Day. We also have at least four close family and friends that have birthdays during Octonodecembuary. It seems like most families have a slew of birthday's during this period as well. Octonodembuary is literally October, November, December, January, and February all rolled into one quick blur.

I first came up with the phrase as a joke about two or three years ago. But I was also serious. Since I work in the mental health field, I actually worked it into holiday stress briefings while I was at Edward's Air Force Base for 2005-2007. Mental Health Flight's always gets tasked to do briefings to remind everyone to watch their stress levels during the holidays - and also the stress levels of those around us. A lot of concern comes from leadership about suicide, stress, and drinking & driving during this time frame. It seems like just when you get the Halloween decorations down, the Thanksgiving decs and planning start. And immediately after Thanksgiving, Christmas decorating starts. Then New Years. Then.....the bills start coming in. But don't forget Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It can be a stressful time just trying to keep up. So I actually inserted a slide into my PowerPoint briefing about "Octonodecembuary" in 2005.

So here it is. I want credit when the term starts getting thrown around.