2008 end-of-year party

Every year, our company has an end-of-year celebration...this year, we enjoyed a formal dress code! It was so fun to pick out an outfit complete with shoes and jewelry...I loved my dress. And my Chris looked so so handsome in his tux! In all the years I've been with him, I have not once seen him in a tux before this. Very dapper!



We did a lot of mingling while there, and took some cute pics with our friends...above is Chris with one of the executives, Todd...he's a fun guy...

Chris captured this one of me and Kim at the end of the party, right before we left...

This is my good friend Delia...she has been out on sick leave because she had a big surgery and has been recovering. I had no idea she was going to be at the party, and I squealed when I saw her. So excited!! This is my friend that calls me "Beautiful" instead of Kelley, every single day. And she also bring me cute fresh flower bouquets for my desk...love her! She is very va va voom...I look a bit like a 4th grader next to her :)

Me with my friend Angie...she's a hoot! And please, no comments on my lovely porcelyn skin...I glow in the dark I'm so white, and that is the case year-round.

Don't we make a fine looking pair?! This is the best we've looked! :) I'm excited to see the photo taken by the professional. They usually turn out very well. I will post it once we get it. Can't you just picture us getting out of our pretty silver Lexus sportscar? Woo woo!

These are a few of the people in my department at work...we are such a fun bunch! That's my boss Jeff in the middle...he is a great leader and a great guy. Victor is the other guy, he is one of the other graphic designers. Our cubicles are right next to each other. The girl on the left is Jyl, the newest member of our department, she's a riot...and the girl on the right is Kylee...she's in charge of coordinating all of our company events and does a fab job...

And I'm sure you might recognize these people...Gary and Kim...don't they look smashing? We all clean up so well!

So, some details about the evening...my mom has waited so patiently! :)

When we arrived, we had our professional photo taken. The prop this year was a silver BMW Z4 Roadster...very sharp (our theme was Casino Royale, a James Bond movie)...then we got a few drinks (open bar) and mingled a bit. Met up with Kim and Gary and found a table. They usually have one big buffet table, but this year they did things a bit differently. There were four different food stations, and they were left open all evening. So people could eat whenever they wanted to. There was the cheese/fruit/cracker/olive station...the salad/bread station...the pasta station with choice of two sauces...and the station with a choice of chicken or beef wellington. I made it to the first three stations and then stopped because I was absolutely stuffed. The food was very good. I had cheese and crackers and some fruit, salad, and pasta with a delicious sun dried tomato pesto sauce. For dessert, there was a chocolate moose with raspberry sauce and whipped cream. I had two bites of that and passed it on to Chris to finish (it was super rich, oi). My sweet tooth definitely isn't what it used to be!

The entertainment for the evening was a combination dj who played music and a casino group. They have a whole system set up for gambling to win a plethora of great prizes like iPods, digital photo frames, 1 hour massages, dinner & a movie, etc. When you cash out, you get tickets, and place them in whatever drawing you want to win. We, of course, didn't win a thing. We never do!! We don't play the games. We prefer to mingle around while everyone is playing, so we end up with like three tickets! The door prize was 2 round-trip tickets to anywhere in the US or Mexico...and no, we didn't win those either! :(

The entertainment was a lot of fun though. There was a main guy who jazzed everyone up, he had people up dancing and doing the silliest things to win tokens for the games. The whole group of us was loud and crazy and I think that everyone had the best time. I certainly think this was our best party ever.

We are so lucky to work for such a great company. The end-of-year party is always something we all look forward to...it's a lot of work to prepare for it (our department does a lot), but it's always worth it. It's been a long week, but it was filled with good stuff. Thursday morning we had our yearly meeting/training, and I thought this year's was very motivational. Our company takes a vested interest in us as individuals and employees...not many people can say that! We are very lucky...