‘Twas
the Night Before Christmas - The AMSE Version
by Audra Edwards
'Twas the night before
Christmas, when all through the Slack
Not a message was stirring, not
even a business fact;
The stockings were hung on the
website with care,
In hopes that Moni Jefferson
soon would be there;
The entrepreneurs were nestled
all snug in their beds;
While visions of scalability
danced in their heads;
And the hubby in his lounge
pants, and I in my Mrs. Claus cap,
Had just settled our working
brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the Remo there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my rolly chair to
see what was the matter.
Away to the open window I flew
like a flash,
Tore open the chat function and
hoped it wouldn’t crash.
The filter on the video of the pixelated snow,
Gave the illusion of a
Christmas party room to participants below,
When what to my wondering eyes
did appear,
But a miniature keyboard and
seven teammates, dear,
With a beautiful leader so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment she must be
Monique.
More rapid than eagles her team
members came,
And she whistled, and shouted,
and called them by name:
"Now, Michelle!
now, Kathleen!
now Amira and Audra!
On, Caroline!
on, Team!
on, Anna and Selena!
To the top of the website! to
the top of the socials!
Now dash away! dash away! dash
away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an
obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the channel the AMSE
team flew
With the community full of networking opportunities, and
Moni too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the thread
The brainstorming and planning
from each entrepreneur’s head.
As I minimized my window, and
started to shut my system down,
To the AMSE Bash Moni did come
with a bound.
She was dressed in festive fun, from her head to her
feet,
And her clothes were so
jubilant, the Grinch’s mood she would beat;
A bundle of resources she had
flung on her back,
And she looked like a peddler
just opening her pack.
Her eyes—how they twinkled! Her messy bun, how
merry!
Her cheeks were like roses, her
lipstick the color of a cherry!
Her ears were festooned with
the shiniest hoops,
And her Air Force Spouse pride
was evident to the troops;
The end of a pen she held tight in her teeth,
And the ideas, they encircled
her head like a wreath;
She had a thoughtful face and
an attitude of Hustle!
That drove her to help other
milspouse business owners thrive with mind, willpower, and muscle.
She was confident and positive, a right jolly founding
elf,
And I smiled back when I saw
her, in spite of myself;
A wink of her eye and a twist
of her head
Soon gave me to know I had
nothing to dread;
She spoke all the words, and went straight to her
work,
And filled all the virtual
stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying her finger aside of
her nose,
And giving a nod, away from the
website she rose;
She sprang to her keyboard, to her team gave a
whistle,
And away their fingers flew
like the down of a thistle.
But I heard her exclaim, ere
she moved out of the camera’s sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”