Party, party, party!

You can tell it's December - I attended 3 parties in as many days!

Thursday was the big day at my new office, and what a partying bunch! Secret Santa drawing, and the white elephant ("Yankee swap", present-stealing) game, a door-decorating contest, a most-festive-attire contest, and a vast potluck spread with beer & wine among the beverages.

Friday was the Chief's office party which they also made his retirement party. There were the usual serious presentations (including a certificate and poinsettia for me), as well as some pretty good friendly ("beers of the world") and gag gifts. They obviously have some bakers in the group, as the potluck included homemade fudge and Christmas cookies. They also played the gift-stealing game; I suspect my husband didn't know he had been included, judging from the look on his face when they called his name as the next to open or steal a gift. After the party, we then proceeded to prep for the next one, going out to pick up the ducks we'd ordered, then going home to continue cleaning, polish silver, start getting the table ready, etc.

And Saturday was our dinner party. The table looked lovely, the food was OK (how do I keep it from getting cold so fast even when I warm the serving dishes?!?), and the company was great. We had rather more glitches than usual (e.g., put the jellied cranberry and the Chief's homemade cranberry sauces in their dish, which we left in the fridge; loaded up the CD player then forgot to turn it on), but nothing major. It was lovely to be able to sit and talk uninterrupted for hours; if we succeed in getting them out to the cabin, we'll be able to look forward to more of the same.