The eagle-eyed amongst you may have picked up on our mentioning this in the recent Beach BBQ article. The Jacksons office is very excited as we share in the joy and excitement that has been building up as the baby’s due date draws near. To celebrate, we decided to throw them a little baby shower in the office on Tuesday.
Demi is the unrivalled queen of cake - she made five absolute lip-smackingly delicious ones for her own wedding and even somehow transformed a glut of Steve Squires’ courgettes into a chocolate flavoured delight (don’t try this at home; if you are like me, you’ll be deeply disappointed when without Demi’s magic touch the cake tastes all too much like actual vegetables!). We tasked her with whipping up another for the event. To be honest, whenever we can find any reason at all to get Demi to bake us a cake, we jump on it and she’s always happy to oblige.
In an effort to surprise Elliot, we colluded with Grace to arrange for her to come into the office around lunchtime. She texted us from the car park and Toby H was tasked with distracting Elliot whilst we frantically hung bunting and arranged presents in preparation for the celebration. A fine job Toby did too, without doubt the best man for the job.
When Elliot unexpectedly ducked out of Toby’s office to grab his notepad, the surprise was almost rumbled. Thankfully, Elliot was fairly oblivious to our shenanigans although later reflected that he did think people were behaving a little peculiarly during that day!
We gathered in the ‘hive’ chill-out area of the office and when we were ready and in position, called for Elliot to come down. Amy, who is currently on maternity leave and her gorgeous baby girl Nova, came along to join in the fun. Elliot was duly surprised and charmingly complementary of our efforts. Our carefully chosen collective presents – all wooden, gorgeous and sourced from a sustainability-conscious company – went down a treat with the parents-to-be and now take pride of place in the Coomber’s nursery. The tiny swan-shaped toy pram was so adored it may yet inspire someone to produce the next mini-Jacksons member!
Our company maternity and paternity packages are so good it’s a wonder we don’t have everyone off on leave. Elliot is going to enjoy four precious weeks at home with his new family, rather than the standard two weeks most places offer. As the only other full-time paraplanner on the team, Jacob has been very supportive and is rising to the challenge of holding down the fort while Elliot is away. Don’t worry, we’re not over-burdening Jacob – we’re far too nice to do that – so the whole team is sharing out any additional work as required until Elliot gets back. Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Jacksons is a great place to work.
We’re going to really miss Elliot and his cheering, exuberant presence in the office. Any day now we will be able to stop trying to guess what name he and Grace have chosen for their baby and the first generation of ‘Coombers in Cornwall’ will arrive. We can’t wait!