Christmas parties

On Thursday, we had the School's Christmas Party, called an "Open House" to be cognizant of the different faiths and cultures or politically correct since we're a state institution. It was fun, but oh so different than Kevin's party last weekend. It is during the work day (nice since we are paid to be there and makes for a better turn out), and was held in the event center on the 3rd floor. It was FULL of people, I don't realize how many people work here until I see the huge room we are in and how full it is, and this is just the employees not guests, etc. that many parties have. It makes sense we have so many employees but I forget since I interact with a much smaller group, and with faculty on their own schedules I almost never see them. They had a DJ with karaoke, and a photo booth to get your picture on a magazine (we actually got one this year, last year we got in line too late), and lots of appetizers - my favorites: some kind of fried corn ball, and an arthichoke heart stuffed with cheese and fried, nothing fried is good for me but oh it tastes so good! I'd told Kevin he was on his own for dinner, because I figured (correctly!) that I wouldn't be hungry for dinner. I recognized a lot more people this year than last year (at last year's party I'd been here only a few weeks) and it was good to see everyone, but it fell on a day when I had a meeting all morning and then right after I left for my fitness release time, so I was in my office for all of about 2 hours.

Contrast this party with Kevin's party, they really couldn't BE much different. He works for a small, private company. It was held last Saturday at a really nice restaurant (Smith & Wollensky's) in Uptown Park. It was a great excuse to get dressed up and have a nice night out. They had a cocktail hour with servers coming around with great appetizers, several of which I couldn't pronounce, the ones I can come up with a name are: ahi tuna, chicken salad with truffles in a shell (puff pastry?) that looked like a tiny ice cream cone (my favorite), beef wellington with truffles, spring rolls, some sort of filet with a pepper sauce (I can't remember the correct name, and when I asked the server what it meant - I was trying to remember it, he said he had no idea). They were all beautifully served, and I tried a little of each. This place has a different level of service than any other place we've been - we went to eat here once and they seriously have a person who picks up the crumbs off the table for you with this little metal tool. The servers would wait for you to eat the appetizer then take the toothpick, napkin, etc. back from you. I wasn't ready to eat it so kept apologizing and they're like quit apologizing. I like to eat out but am never comfortable with that kind of attention. After that we had a sit-down dinner, here were the courses (we chose one from each course):

First Course:

• Caesar salad -- everyone at our table got this one, so I couldn't really see the other one. But this was the strangest looking salad. It was like "assemble your own". They were full stalks of romaine, with parmesan pieces on one side and a generous helping of salad dressing on the other (on the plate, not in a bowl or anything). This is one of two things about the night that I didn't like. Strange thing is we had this salad here before and it didn't come out like this.
• Iceberg wedge - from what I could tell, it looked like an eighth of a head of lettuce on a plate.

Second Course:

• grilled mahi mahi - I got this, and it was good. It came out with grilled vegetables underneath it and it tasted delectable


• filet mignon - Kevin got this, it was also very good, but they didn't make sure everyone got the steak cooked the way they requested it (his was way too red), and he said it was chewy :(


• lemon chicken- one person at our table got this, I opted not to since we make chicken at home a lot and I wanted something I'm unlikely to make. it came out with french fried onions on top of it, really pretty presentation.
  

For everyone to share there were these sides, the first two served in copper pots:

• mashed potatoes
  
• a creamed spinach - melted in your mouth
  
• stalks of asparagus - I can't cook it, but I love asparagus

oh, and their rolls, ohhh...i could go on and on about them. They come out in a round dish and are all connected to each other....mmmm..I love bread.

Third Course:

• Chocolate cake - we each got this, and it was so good, layers of cake with a mousse layer in between, we actually split one piece and brought the other home


• berries and cream - looked good, but can't compete (for us) with chocolate
  

Did I mention there was an open bar? We thought they're probably be just wine, the restaurant is known for it, but nope there was pretty much anything you wanted - I had a cosmo and wine, and Kevin had red wine. We also had wassail that they brought around for everyone to have, very sweet but good and hot since it was cold outside (we kept getting a draft from the door on our dining room that kept opening and closing for people to go outside to smoke - the other thing I didn't like about the evening. The smokers are the ones that want to go smoke, so make them walk a little further so I can stay warm! I actually made the comment seeing all that was spent on that night, that in that room you wouldn't know there was a recession. The company had a great year in 2008, their best yet, and we were happy to share in the good fortune. They had a photographer taking photos, we took a picture of us in front of the tree, I can't wait to see it...hopefully they'll get them next week.