Surviving My Office Holiday Party

As part of my office’s social committee, I’ve been busy planning our holiday parties for quite some time now. We had our kiddie party last weekend (where I was in charge of the cupcake room) and last Thursday we had our adult party at Milagro.

Milagro serves traditional Mexican fare and I wasn’t sure exactly what that would mean for me! I had a late lunch and had a snack before I left the office to ensure that I wasn’t going hungry! I spent the first part of the night greeting everyone as they came in and handed out drink tickets and raffle ballots. It was really fun to mingle with everyone and chat with them as they came in. We had rented out the entire restaurant, so I also had to turn some strangers away.

In between employees coming in, I munched on corn chips with guacamole. Best. Guac. Ever.

It was creamy and tangy and wonderful. I ate a lot of it. Other appetizers came including quesedillas and shrimp ceviche, followed by a veggie one, which my table bestowed upon me, dish and all. It was really yummy, but it had a lot of black pepper in it and I find that I just can’t handle black pepper!! It burns my mouth, so I generally try to avoid it and don’t cook with it at home. Black pepper aside, the ceviche was refreshing and delightful.

Because I don’t drink, I found myself drinking water or cranberry juice all night. The guys behind the bar were laughing at me, so I asked them to make me something fun: A mango-pomegranate smoothie – yum!! It was delicious. My decision to drink has been based on a few different factors:

• I’ve always had a very low alcohol tolerance and that tolerance was dropped down to ZERO once I had gotten to my goal weight
• When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s, I was put on a medication I was unable to mix with alcohol so I stopped drinking altogether
• Once I was taken off that medication, I wondered what effect alcohol was having on my body and decided that I was probably better off without it.

I’ve come to learn that I can have a great time with people, even if I’m the only one not drinking. I’ve noticed that as long as you have something in your hand (like my giant smoothie or even a glass of juice), people don’t say anything. And if anyone asks, I give them my reasons and they go on their merry way.

When the mains came out there wasn’t a ton of options for me, so one of the other members of the social committee spoke to our server and they brought me out a cactus salad and some rice So at the time, I had no idea it was a cactus salad. I knew that it was green and tasted tangy and veggie-like but wasn’t exactly sure what I was consuming. It was great that they were able to accommodate me and I left with a happy tummy.

The party was a great success and everyone certainly enjoyed themselves (I left when the complimentary tequila was starting to roll out). Lucky for me I did not leave empty handed. We had scored some pretty sweet prizes for our raffle and as a member of the social committee I knew what everything was including a blackberry, Raptors tickets, days off, bottles of wine, sports jerseys and a PVR. Wasn’t my name called first?? Merry Christmas to me! I picked this:

An LG netbook – perfect for school!! I haven’t gotten it going yet (because in the beginning I wasn’t sure I was going to keep it for myself) but after taking it out of the box, I fell in love a little bit. It’s super light, very small and will be perfect for school and blogging.

I had a wonderful night with my coworkers talking, dancing (with the mariachi band) and laughing. While I thought that the food might pose a little bit of a challenge, I had quite a few yummy choices and definitely did not leave hungry! Everyone was interested in hearing my plans for the new year and I was even told that I’m expected to come back as the office’s corporate nutritionist. Everyone was enthusiastic about my new endeavours but also shared that they were sad to see me go. It was a really nice way to end my time at the office as I transition into my new life!!

How did your holiday parties go this month?
Anything exciting coming up this week?
I can’t believe that Christmas is tomorrow!!