Monday, December 7, 2009

Advent Calendar Dec 7th - Holiday Parties

To say that my family members were not "party people" is a supreme understatement. All of our Christmas festivities were kept to ourselves. I believe that after my mother started working she did attend her annual Christmas dinner, but otherwise the only other party we were involved in was the Christmas party at school. Every year the "room mothers" brought in various treats and punch for all the kids. I remember it being a delightful time and we were full of sugar and sent home to our parents! Some of those treats included frosted sugar cookies, occasionally cupcakes (sometimes baked in an ice cream cone), or my all-time favorite were the jello-flavored popcorn balls. For Christmas they were cherry or strawberry, orange for Halloween, and usually something pink or maybe green for Easter. Of course, those were the days when the public school I attended allowed parties with the Christian titles. Now my daughter as a Harvest Party, a Holiday Party, etc.

The first year or two of our marriage, we attended my husband's company party. Those were the golden years of the company and they went all out. The one I distinctly remember was held at a local sports arena and concert venue. Of course this was also the location of our local hockey team, so to hold the party they put flooring down over the ice rink. Did I mention this party was semi-formal so I spent a cold evening in dress heels standing on flooring not six inches above very frozen ice? This company also offered an annual Children's Party with free games, those big blow-up jump houses and slides, crafts, cookies, etc. They also had some very wonderful Santas that you could stand in line to visit and get a photo. Unfortunately the economy has taken precedent and this is the first year in my husband's twelve years with the company that it will not be offered. I hope some day times will turn around enough that they can offer this again. The only admission charge is canned food for our local food bank.

In more recent times we have attended my employer's annual sit-down dinner. My company is quite generous and we always have a wonderful meal followed by either entertainment or dancing, and each year there is a lovely gift for each employee. We have three locations so the dinner seating arrangements are always such that you get to visit with those in other offices that you don't see very frequently. It's always fun and it's nice to see the bosses "let their hair down", so to speak. I don't think it's unusual for a spouse to not want to go to the other spouse's work party, but this party isn't like that. Everyone is absolutely made to feel welcome. It's really one of the most well done parties I've ever had the privilege of attending.

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