We WISH You A Merry Xmas From Dean HQ

Even after a short weekend visit, it's clear these folks know how to work hard and need some convincing to leave their desks and get into the "party hard" mode, but they seemed to make the transition. . Once the party got going, it was a ton of fun. How could you NOT have fun watching Joe Trippi and Cathy Lash dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Santa, giving us the requisite number of "Ho! Ho! Ho!" 's and handing out gifts? Matt Gross in elfish attire was also not to be missed.

The 20 inches of snow in Burlington VT surely added to the holiday spirit. Right before the party kicked off, everyone had to go out and move their trucks, SUV's, VW bugs and every other kind of car out of the parking lot so the snowplows could take a crack at clearing it.

Joe Trippi knows how to rally his troops and especially how to appreciate them and praise them. Harvard Business School and General Patton combined don't have as much natural gut leadship ability as this guy. He says the right things and it was a moment of family business, so I won't quote it.

After Joe's couch pillow had fallen out of his santa tunic three times, and the room seemed to be near 90 degrees, he decided to retire the very HOT outfit, heading down the hall saying "Santa has to go find that guy Joe Trippi who's missing all the fun."

A group hit the conference room which was decked with all manner of meatballs, hummus, veggies, baked ham, you name it, to warm themselves around the tri-corner hat shaped conferenece phone to call the other Dean state HQs -- Iowa, NH, etc. -- to sing a loud "We WISH You A Merry Xmas" -- of course, not without some terrific spoofs and trick voices to see how well the volunteers on the other end of the line could handle whatever they threw at them.