The Office Christmas Party

Today was the office Christmas party and you'll never guess who made an appearance?!?!

Each year our team has an office Christmas party and while they are always fun and never boring - ordering lunch, playing games and exchanging gifts - this year's party is one that is sure to go down in the books.

After eating lunch and playing a couple of fun Christmas related office games, such as Santa's Secret Elf - as named by me; an office game that I learned of through some online research - and a fill in the blank word game, where you filled in the missing parts of the poem, 'Twas the Nigh Before Christmas', it was time for the main attraction: Dirty Santa.

If you've never heard of or played the Dirty Santa game, let me just tell you... this is a wicked little game that is good for groups and is sure to bring lots of laughter - and a possible grudge or two. ;)

The gist of this game is that everyone brings in a generic gift (generic of course meaning non gender specific, something that anyone could use) and then each person picks a number. When it's your turn, you can either pick a gift from the pile or swipe someone else's gift (a gift can only be swiped once per round), ending once all the gifts have been opened.

You never know what you will end up with.

For instance, there were several gifts that I had my eyes on this time, a Malco movie gift card and a couple of cute snowmen gifts - gift cards, snowmen and Christmas type decorations are always a big hit with our group.

It was the last round, one gift on the table and one person left to pick.

I had my Malco gift card, and thought I was going to get away with it too; but then, she took her pick of the litter, setting off a chain of gift snatching that eventually lead to my Malco movie gift card landing in the hands of another. :(

I swiped and they swiped and then it was finally down to her. She is one of our older team members - I would put her in the grandmother range, and by that I mean the my grandmother range, not my children's grandmother range - she has been with the company some thirty odd years, she loves to travel, is very soft spoken and one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet.

She had her gift throughout the entirety of the game and then, in the last round, the very same chain of events that lead to my Malco movie gift card getting snagged, caused her to lose her pretty ceramic Christmas Tree - I was so sad for her because that gift looked like it was made just for her. :(

She looked around the room and then decided to end it by going to the table for the very last gift.

She opened the bag and was rather excited when she saw it was a CD. You see, she - like the rest of us - probably thought it was a Christmas CD. But, as she slowly pulled it out of the bag for further examination, laughter exploded from the room - beginning with one of my co-workers and myself, as we saw the picture on the back cover and began to realize exactly what it was that she had just picked.

That's right folks! Someone (who shall remain nameless) bought Beyonce's newest CD as a gift, for our office Christmas party - a party consisting of twenty people who range in age, sex, race, creed, personalities and interests.

H-E-L-L-OOOOO?!?!?!

Are you kidding me?

Please tell me that he did not really buy Beyonce's CD, with her half naked picture on the back cover, for an office Christmas party gift and of all the people, in that entire room full of people, she is the one who ended up with it.

I. could. have. died!

Then, after she had examined the cover from front to back and placed it back into the bag, amid the wails of laughter, this sweet lady looked up and said, "What makes you all think I wouldn't like Beyonce?"

Of course, the mental image that I had in my head at that moment did not mesh - at all - with the grandmotherly image that I have of her.

I somehow, have a very difficult time picturing her sticking her rear end out, 'spankin' dat ass', while singing, "if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it."

Nope! Just can't see it.

But that's her, a team player with a great sense of humor.

Hmmm? I wonder if she'll burn a copy of her new CD for me?? ;) What do y'all think?

In the end, I went home with a very cute little Snowman dude - also, as named by me ;) - a nice seasonal picture frame - one can never have too many picture frames, amen? - and a very pretty ornament for my tree. :)