It’s that time of year when the boss ‘spends but a few pounds of your mortal money’ for a festive gathering. I’ll start the thread with the one we just had.
Our company Christmas parties used to be big affairs. Hotel ballroom, two lines of hotel ballroom food with a cook slicing prime rib and ham at the end, hundreds of people, lame entertainment… The new president talked to the board of directors, and it was decided that this decades-long tradition would be ended. Instead, the Christmas party would be for our office. No guests.
It’s better this way. No ‘dressing up’, no long drive to Seattle and then back again, better food, free booze, and you know everybody. And also much cheaper for the company than the traditional ‘do’. Our party kicked off with the Secret Santa gift exchange. I didn’t take part, but my boss and I exchanged presents. Since she got something for the SO, I brought both presents home to be opened Christmas Day. She also noted that she’d never seen me with a plant in my cubicle, so she gave me ‘a plant you can’t kill’: a Christmas cactus. (I pointed out that she’d already given me a plant I can’t kill a few years ago. 
) Someone got a bottle of El Padrino tequila in the SSGE and he shared it. I had a shot, and it was good stuff. About a quarter past noon we got onto the party bus to head for our undisclosed destination. The admins were passing around mimosas, but I asked for a bit of vino rosso. We had plastic cups like you’d get at a stadium, and mine was nearly filled with red wine. It was probably two, two, two drinks in one!
Our venue was, as I said, a surprise. The first year, which I missed, was at the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. Last year it was at a very nice restaurant overlooking Elliott Bay. This year it was at the top of the tallest skyscraper in Seattle, the 76th floor of the Columbia Center. I ordered a Maker’s Mark. A waiter was walking about with a tray, so I got a mimosa while I awaited my drink – which I didn’t get until we sat down for lunch. I opted for the salad to start. It had little pieces of pears hidden in it, and a bacon vinaigrette dressing. Yummy. Good buns, too. I chose the New York steak for the main course (all steaks were cooked medium-rare, so mine could have been a little more bloody), and it came with mixed vegetables and puréed potatoes. I finished off the plant matter, and made it through half of the steak – and another bourbon. Dessert was a chocolate-dipped strawberry, a miniature custard tart with a raspberry and a blackberry on top, and a miniature choux pastry painted with chocolate. I was only able to drink half of a cup of coffee before we had to get back onto the party bus for the ride back to the office. More tequila was offered, but I thought six drinks in three hours was enough for my 115-mile drive home; so I declined. There’s a new guy who starts on the 5th. I ended up sitting next to him for the rides and the lunch. Turns out he’s from Chula Vista, so we had common points to chat about. He mentioned ‘TJ’. Last weekend the SO and I were watching Bizarre Foods, and Andrew Zimmern said ‘TJ’. I told her that it’s been forever since I’d heard someone call Tijuana that. I’ve just emailed him Chula Vista from KGB’s (radio station) ‘Homegrown’ album. I only wish the Columbia Center had a deck, or windows that opened, so I could pretend I was flying a helicopter again. I may have gotten some nose prints on the windows, trying to look straight down from nearly 800 feet.
So that was our company Christmas party. Now I’m on two weeks of holiday and ‘use or lose’ vacation.