Christmas party time!

I had the pleasure of three Christmas parties this year, two with friends, one at work. First party was a dinner and ornament exchange at my co-worker Josh's house. We brought mashed potatoes and two ornaments to exchange. I picked the first number for the exchange and managed to find the absolute worst gift of the bunch - a Giants ornament!

Thankfully somebody took that crap off my hands and I ended up with an elf ornament. Chris got a pickle ornament which he thought was perfect because he calls me his 'little pickle'. Probably because I'm sour and prickly.

Second party was my work party that I helped organize. We didn't have one last year and the year before was a disaster because everyone, except maybe 5 people, were told they were on the 'naughty' list by the big boss. This year we hosted an after-hours appetizer and dessert party in our department (development services) that included an ugly sweater contest and yes, another ornament exchange. Much to my surprise almost everyone came and genuinely had a great time and the sweater contest was hilarious. And best of all, I was voted best sweater for the ladies. Though I don't know if I was offended or not that nobody at Starbucks said anything about my sweater. As if I liked it or something?!?

Now it looks like we've been voted official party planners for next year's party too!

Our last party was last weekend at my friend Kari's house. It was a dinner and game party that we brought an amazing peanut butter chocolate cake to and had a blast playing a dice game called "left, right, center".

For each round of the dice game each player starts out with $3 in front of them then roll the 3 dice. Each dice is imprinted with L's, R's, C's, and black dots. If you roll any L's, you give that many $1 bills to your left. Same with the R's, only to your right. Any C's means to put that many $1 bills into the center, or the "pot". If you get a black dot, you get to keep that many of your dollar bills. Eventually only one person is left with $1 and they win the pot which is what happened for Chris on the last round. 24 sweet one dollar bills to fan out.

Now we're on to the ultimate party - Christmas, when Wilson & Houston get here!

Fabulous fall

October is my favorite month because of all of the notably awesome events of the month such as both of our birthdays and Halloween. For my birthday my co-workers decorated my desk and took me to the Japanese restaurant down the street for lunch while my bible study gals made me a delicious lemon cake.

In the middle of October, Chris and I went to a Zac Brown Band concert at the Sleep Train Amphitheater with my co-worker Matt and his special lady friend, Nicole. Matt had the brilliant idea for us to wear glow in the dark necklaces so that once the lights went out we'd be able to find our way back to our lawn seats should we wander off for drinks or potty breaks. The concert was good, though it was to promote their new album which we weren't really familiar with.

The same weekend as our concert, Wilson & Houston were staying with us. And as we like to do when they're home, we had another taste testing. This time it was fast food chicken nuggets. The contenders were McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Wendy's, KFC, and Carl Jr's.

After much scientific research our results indicated that the overall favorite was....Jack in the Box! And surprisingly, KFC was the least favorite. Personally I thought they tasted too much like real chicken and who wants that?

The following weekend the 'rents and their pup, Chase, came down for a quick visit.

Time was well spent shopping and eating out including a delicious birthday dinner at Sierra Nevada. Chase was so funny, he wouldn't leave the area rug in the living room. Something about the feel/sound of the laminate floors were unnerving to him and couldn't be trusted.

The night before Halloween my co-worker, Dina, had a couples dinner at her house that Chris and I went to. We brought a caprese salad to go with the Italian beef sandwiches that Dina and her husband, Don, provided. One of the couples wore their toga Halloween costumes, much to our amusement.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I spent the weekend out of town with my friend, Face, and her family for an early Thanksgiving celebration.

There was lots of baking, a full Thanksgiving meal, and numerous games of cribbage - the official game of our teenage years. And most importantly I was introduced to a new favorite drink - hot mulled apple cider with caramel vodka. Ahhhhmazing.

Our own Thanksgiving was much more low-key. Due to a last minute snow storm and Chris coming down with a cold, we ended up staying home instead of going up to see the 'rents, but we still managed to find all the fixings for a traditional turkey dinner. Chris even found a perfect little turkey breast (from Jeannie-O) that baked in a bag in about 1 1/2 hours. We don't do Black Friday shopping, but we did go out over the weekend, looking for new walking shoes, and I found this gem of a sweater for our office ugly Christmas sweater party coming up in December.

And the best part is that I found out I have a meeting with Safeway big-wigs the day I'll be rocking this sweater at work! Good thing it's really professional looking. ;)

December is full of Christmas parties for us. We have one next weekend with a co-worker of mine and another one the following weekend with a gal from my bible study. Plus I have my work party that I'm helping organize. Then Wilson & Houston will be back for the last week of the year during which we'll be taste testing egg rolls so stay tuned!