Christmas Party 2009

Jason & I hosted our annual Christmas party at our house last night. We had around 25 guests, including several of our co-workers, some of Jason's recruits' parents, several good friends & one of my former students with her husband. We ate a lot of good food and spent time talking and catching up with everyone. We also played a "Name That Christmas Tune" game - our guests had to listen to 10 popular Christmas songs & name the artist and title of the song. We had prizes for the four top scorers - they were:

First Place: Jen, my former student, won a Body Shop gift basket

Second Place: Niki, our good friend, received some Yankee Candle car fresheners

Third Place: Jessica, my co-worker, got a Christmas Cookie Yankee Candle

Fourth Place: Linda, one of Jason's recruits moms, won a case of Coors Light! :-)

Did you notice that all of the winners were females??? I guess the men just aren't up to speed on their Christmas carols. Below are some pictures from the event:

The invitations

The score sheet for "Name That Christmas Tune" game - don't you just love my spreadsheet skills??? :-)

The drink station

The food spread, including the famous sausage wontons, cocktail weenies & Jason's cheeseball that was delicious!

More yummy food (spinach dip & a chocolate fountain w/ fruit for dipping)

Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures .... I spent most of the night sitting down (which is quite out of character for me - usually I am quite the hostess, filling drinks, passing out food, etc.). But everyone insisted that I relax and sit, which was a nice change! Pregnancy definitely has it perks!

Speaking of pregnancy perks, Jason was absolutely amazing this weekend. He helped so much with the party details - on Friday night once he got home from work, we began prepping food and setting up. He also got busy on Saturday when he got home from work. Jason did a lot of the food, including chopping the fruit, getting the chocolate fountain working (which was quite a job, it was doing some sputtering early on) and preparing the cheeseball, which was delicious and received TONS of compliments. He also did a lot of the decorating & cleaning, such as setting up chairs and washing all of the dishes that were used to cook. I've said it before, but I'll say it again ... I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband!

Several of our Michigan friends were sad since they recently heard the news of our pending move to North Carolina. We will miss our friends that we have made up here, but look forward to continuing our annual holiday party tradition at our new home near Camp Lejeune. Who knows, maybe some of our Michigan friends will make the trip down to NC for the party so they can continue the tradition with us! :-)