Then There's This Holiday Party...

Your office one. Nothing says Xmas like a pot-luck lunch in the conference room. This year someone brought traditional Xmas empanadas instead of the usual ham. So, that was interesting. Carved myself a lovely slice of empanada. I usually go with the veggie platter which no one eats. This year I went with pie. Which everyone would have eaten if the person that brought the special individually wrapped cookies hadn't tried to one-up me. Christmas is not a competition, people!

So once we've all eaten our meal in relative silence - as a group we get together once a year so you would think there would be more to talk about...

Then let the games begin! Or more accurately, let's do the White Elephant gift exchange. The best part about this? The fighting over the rules. I keep hoping that one year it will end in either a brawl or tears but usually just a lot of raised voices. One can live in hope though...

Our limit is $20 which some people seem to think means $5. Last year someone received a $5 Starbucks gift card. Embarrassingly, they continued to search around in the festive gift bag but to no avail. Sometimes you get a good gift, like the person that received my cheeseboard set complete with slate blackboard plate and chalk so you can write the names of the cheese on it. I tried really hard to get that back but there's a rule that says if someone "steals" it instead of keeping the gift they chose, it can only be stolen twice before it's dead in the water. 

I think it would be a lot more fun if we all opened the gifts we picked, put them in the center of the room and hit an air horn with a free-for-all. I would bite and scratch and I bet I'd come out of it with a lovely cheeseboard set. The problem with this game is that we're a bunch of people who negotiate for a living so you're lucky if you come out of it with anything.

This year I actually did ok, got myself a lovely soft blanket*. Although I started out with chocolate. Which would have been nice to eat under my lovely soft blanket with the candle that the person next to me got, burning in the background. Could not close the deal with them though.

All in all, an awkward end to the year.

*Thank you Harvard School of Negotiation. Yet again, you have paid for yourself.