A Tale of Two Parties

On Dec. 6th, we went to Jacob's work holiday party and on Dec. 12th, we went to my work holiday party.


Jacob's party cost $10, a 7-layer dip, plus 2 white elephant gifts for the 2 of us to attend. The party was held at a neighborhood club house and about 70 people attended (which accounted for most of the people Jacob works with). The food was good and we had a good time watching people open and steal white elephant gifts. We came home with a box set of Planter's Peanuts (Jacob's gift) and a bright yellow, weird shaped bowl that I "stole" because it would make a great dip dish or more immediately, a great peanut bowl. :)


My party cost $66, $6 for parking, plus the cost of a new dress, for us to attend. The party was held at El Tropicano hotel (which we quickly realized was the hotel formerly known as the Four-Points Sheraton) and about 120 people attended (which only accounts for a very small portion of everyone I work with). The salad with ranch dressing and the rolls with sweet cream butter were delicious. The rest of the meal was not so great. Fortunately, we did have some cake towards the end of the night (yay for cake!). The emcee was someone from work who did a great job entertaining us. The door prizes were good, in fact we won a date night because Jacob won a GC to Malibu (who knew it was still open?) and Scott and Tiffany gave us their GC to Mamacita's (we rarely say no to free food). The AFPC coordinators did an excellent job ensuring everything ran smoothly. However, the hotel coordinator kept propping open the door that led to the smoking area (I have nothing against smokers, but I don't want to breathe their smoke); it was pretty disgusting (not to mention hazardous to our health). When one of the AFPC coordinators asked the hotel coordinator to keep the door closed he explained that he wanted the doors open to cool down the room and that running the a/c would make it too cold.

Which party would you prefer to attend?

Christmas Luncheon

I love my job! Today we had our division holiday luncheon at the Marriott Rivercenter. The luncheon cost $25 per non-shinefund member or free for all members who were paid up (I finally paid all of my dues so I was able to attend for free). It was a great luncheon! (Yes, in case you haven't noticed a reccuring theme on this blog, I truly love to eat).

Carol, Janice, Me, & Greg

Fran, Elva, Sandra, & Kathy

The luncheon included an all-you-can-eat salad bar, pasta bar, chicken, pork chops, rice, veggies, assortment of breads, and dessert bar. I ate way too much (especially after finishing my meal off with 2.5 desserts)! After enjoying our meals, our division chief made a few announcements and then drew names for door prizes. The luncheon coordinator arranged for enough door prizes so that there would be a 50% chance for each person to win a prize. In fact 50% of our table won prizes, including me! It was a great way to spend a lunch!

Thanksgiving

Three years ago, I negotiated an agreement with Jacob for us to host Thanksgiving. Negotiating Thanksgiving back then was quite a challenge because I had to convince Jacob that it was woth it to him to host Thanksgiving even though it meant he would need to do most of the work. This was because I was in grad school and most of my time was spent studying or meeting with groups. Thanks to Dr. Plowman's negotiations class, I was able to negotiate and draft a contact that both of us agreed on (plus I was able to use my Thanksgiving negotiation as my final project, on which I earned an A).



Based on the success of that initial Thanksgiving at our house, Jacob has easily agreed to host Thanksgiving ever since. Thus, for the 3rd year in a row, we hosted Thanksgiving. Each year seems to run a little smoother than the previous year and we received a lot of positive feedback from our families suggesting that this year was the best year yet! I was especially glad about this because now that our families are growing (i.e., through marriages) we know that we might not be able to host Thanksgiving the same way, much longer. For instance, now that my cousin Cesar is married, his family now spends Thanksgiving game night with him, so you can see that we are slowly losing our attendees.


The details:
Our families arrived around at our house between 2-2:30 pm; we ate dinner a little after 3 pm (we had good variety of food, plus we had 3 sweetpotato dishes and 2 cranberry dishes); the football lovers watched football (which gave me some time to clean up a little), and the non-football lovers engaged in conversations with each other and helped me pick up the kitchen by packing up to-go plates for Jacob's grandfather (who wasn't able to make it to our house); we enjoyed delicious desserts, cocoa and coffee (my favorite part); and we played Turbo Cranium (my mom was a great puppeteer, Monica was a great puppet, and Jacob's dad was a great sensosketcher). After the game, we sat back and relaxed in the living room to wind down from the day. It was a great Thanksgiving!

My mom, Jacob's mom, and me trying to guess the song that Monica was humming.

Matthew and Jacob trying to guess what Jacob's dad was sculpting.

Neysa's B-day Extravaganza

On Nov. 29th, Jacob and I attended Neysa's 29th Birthday Extravaganza! The party was great! She had tons of good food (beef, BBQ chicken, pork, shrimp, potato salad, beans, rice, etc.), plenty of drinks (to include a margarita machine), and good music. Neysa's mom even made Jacob a small batch of her atomic habanero hot sauce.

We had a great time and we were excited to be back at Neysa's house after 11 years (the last time we were there, it was for a high school graduation party, c/o '97). Rosanna and I even reminisced about out senior lunch experiences which involved us being at ... well, I better not say where, since her parents still may not know where we went for senior lunch (Neysa, in case your parents are reading this, I'm refering to the exciting times we had in the cafeteria at Taft). : )

We're looking forward to the next time we all get together...hopefully sooner than 11 years from now. : )

Pitiful Cats

On Nov. 18th, after arriving home from work, I let Crystal and Casper play in the backyard while I stayed inside taking care of Chloe (she scratched the sides of her face so hard that she cut herself with her nails). After about 30-45 min., I went outside to check on Crystal and Casper and discovered that Crystal was no where in sight. After checking the backyard 3 times (just to be sure she wasn't hiding anywhere) I called Jacob and explained the situation and asked him to come home from work as soon as possible. Both of our neighbors checked their yards and still no sign of her. Jacob checked with the neighbors behind our house as soon as he came home. Meanwhile, I evventually checked the backyard again and discovered that she had returned. She was frantically running around the backyard while Casper barked at her and chased her around. Apparently he also was upset that she had escaped (and worse for him, had returned).

After we recovered her, we decided that she would never be allowed outside again without one of us with her. Ever since the incident, Chloe and Crystal both walk around the breakfast area, crying at the back door, begging to be let out. It's a very pitiful sight.