February Fun: Game Day Connections

There are a few things we can always count on in February…

There are a few things you can always count on in February at Camelot: calls from a panicked client or two preparing their taxes and in urgent need to access their storage for a particular manila folder filled with essential tax receipts … and football banter at the coffee maker.

Over the weeks leading up to the NFL's championship game, aka the Big Game, aka the Game of Games, aka Helmetfest (no trademark infringement here), you'll find a mix of moans, groans, occasional expletives, plenty of playful jabs, and a few beaming smiles of pride with a side of coffee at Camelot's morning dispatch desk.

As we get closer and closer to the big Sunday event, even the non-football fans join in the conversation, discussing the halftime performance, the commercials, and their game day plans.

Enter the game day party: friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family gathering together to watch the spectacle. In addition to tax record retrieval, this time of year Camelot's phone rings with requests to rearrange a part of the house such as the living room, garage, or patio, to provide theater-style seating and a buffet for all the guests. We've even been asked to remove a few pieces of furniture, like a grand piano or sofa, to make space for the big event.

Far more than a shindig for the football fanatic, this annual Sunday pigskin-centered party provides an opportunity for all in attendance to put their burdens on a shelf for an afternoon. They can temporarily suspend their worries about health issues, the tight budget, family, world and national news, etc., to connect with friends.

And that's the key: connection. Whether it's the run up to football's biggest annual tournament or the run up to the entertainment industry's biggest annual tournament some weeks thereafter, events like these allow us to connect and bond. Via the banter, the debates, the teasing, the parties, and the pre- and post-event analysis, we relate to each other and build community.

So what's going down at the Kornfeld house on February 8th? The dog beds will be moved behind the couches to make way for more humans. (The dogs won't mind. They'll be all that much closer to the buffet table.) We'll order pizza from our favorite local pizzeria. And I have been promised a homemade tres leches from one daughter and a key lime pie from another along with a rousing round of Game Day Commercial Bingo. Join me at Camelot's coffee maker on February 9th for the postgame analysis. My money is on the tres leches.