Work Holiday Party

We had a nice Christmas luncheon at work today. We normally go out for lunch, but due to the economy, we decided to have it in our conference room. About 30 people attended. We have food from a variety of cultures, making it very interesting - Egg rolls, Indian "Lemon" rice, curried meats and vegetable dishes, Pad Thai, broccoli salad, fruit salad, and other assorted goodies. Our manager brought in a small collection of gifts which were given away by lottery.

We then followed up with a game of "stealing" presents. Everyone who brought a generic gift is given a number. When their number is called, they have the option to get a wrapped gift from under the tree, or steal someone else's gift. If a gift is stolen, the person who lost their gift then gets the option to steal someone else's gift or pick a new gift from the pile. They can not steal back what was stolen from them in the same round, unless that gift passes into someone else's hand during the round. We chose to allow a gift to be stolen up to three times before it has a permanent owner. We had 25 players, and I was the last player. I brought in a fondu set, and was happy that someone thought it nice enough to steal. I ended up with a gift card to Starbucks which will help fund my upcoming dates with my wife.

We also collected up money and arranged to "adopt" four needy families this Christmas season. We gave them gift cards to the grocery store and WalMart so that they could purchase things they needed and hopefully have a better Christmas than they would have otherwise. Two families came to our office in the afternoon. One family had five kids and the other had one. We expect two more families to come in next week, but I will be out of the office during that time. It was nice to know that we had an impact on families who need some additional help.

I'll be taking my immediate co-workers out to breakfast on Thursday.