Our Christmas Office Party! (Absolutely Miserable!)

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Let's face it!  We spend all day Monday through Friday with our co-workers, and the last thing we want to do is give up an evening or weekend to spend even more time with them!  Ha!

Nonetheless, around here the employees at the Foundation (and their spouses) are invited here to the Residence for an insanely-and-utterly-boring annual Christmas party.

We try to make it easy on them (a simple cocktail buffet from 5:30 to 7:00), so they can come straight from the office and then get on with the rest of their evening.

But we do it up right!  The house is full of flowers and candles, catered foods are delivered (which Ester and I transfer to silver platters), and the Missus hired a bartender and an outside Chef for the evening, so Ester and I could be free to 'enjoy' the party!  (Is she kidding?  Ha!)

But why the Chef?  Well, the Mister is fond of having fresh-grilled burgers at his cocktail buffets.  Small, medallion-sized burgers (sometimes called "Sliders"), made from a mixture of bison, sirloin, diced onion and minced garlic.  It's his signature recipe, and everyone in town knows to expect this when they come.

So fine. 

The bartender arrived on time -- but the Chef called and said he'd been in a minor car wreck, and was waiting for a tow truck!  Would be two hours late!  (I tried to call our household chef, but as usual, he was off on a binge somewhere.)


I didn't care one bit!  There was enough catered food in the first place.  But the Missus wouldn't have it!  She didn't want to disappoint her husband and said, "We'll have to do it ourselves!"

OMG! 


We had an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare and grill fifty burgers!   A seriously Sally Quinn moment!

We left Ester to set up the silver platters and light all the candles, and I wish you could have seen the Missus and me in the kitchen!  (What a bizarre moment!)

There she was, fully dressed in cocktail attire -- stilettos, a diamond Cartier watch on one wrist and a two-inch-wide solid-diamond bracelet on the other -- mixing meat and forming patties with her bare hands!  And me, in full butler attire, flipping burgers on the indoor grill. 

Both of us angry, and both of us mumbling 'unintelligible' words under our breath!  Ha! 


In the end, it all went off fine.  The office staff, as always, were adept at pretending they weren't bored to death!   And as I advised them in an email, they all cleared out by seven!  ha!   Soon after that the Mister and Missus went out to dinner.

Normally Ester and I would make an attempt to tidy up after an early cocktail affair like this.  But due to the confusion and stress of the evening, I told her to just go on home.

And I myself retired to my rooms to write to you.  Ha!


I hope your holiday affairs are going along a little more smoothly!  Dear God! 

(Aside from all this silliness -- I'm so very aware there are many, many unemployed people right now, to whom an 'office party' might seem like a dream come true.   God forgive me for being so flippant, and God bless us all!)

Thanks for visiting tonight!


Andrew