Christmas Party 2006

I survived! Yes, Palmer is alive and well after a killer Christmas party. Vero estimates that 40 people entered our house at one point in the night…I would have to think that the party was a success and James pointed out the fact that there were still a living room full of people after midnight. Thanks for the props that night James.

Saturday started out running around getting a few oddities but we had a lot of it covered ahead of time with the help of the Losier clan who had made their way up this weekend. We put up the decorations and the house looked fantastic. We ended the decorating with putting up the Christmas lights above the basement area where the ice hockey championship was to take place and jammed a bit.

Rob and Janice were the first to show up so we started the party off right! Rob, Mike and I went to hook up the Nintendo and practiced a little Blades of Steel. I had never played the game much to Rob’s surprise as it is THE hockey game for Nintendo. After getting the hang of it, more people showed up so I left to do host duties.

There was jaw-dropping good spread of food brought to the party – thanks to all who brought a delicious treat! They were so good that barely anything made it into the leftovers for the next day! The night proceeded well with a little Blades of Steel tournament set up with the help of Claude and all was going well up there. There were various board games being played and the people trickled in. Before we knew it, the place was packed and I don’t even think it was 9:00 yet!

A few people had multiple parties to jet off to so I appreciated that they took the time to drop on by to see what the buzz was about. Hopefully we managed to snap a photo of you before you left! Speaking about photos, Mike had a tripod setup downstairs with a backdrop which consisted of a mattress with a white sheet on it. Now, this on its own doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but after reviewing the photos, I had to laugh as a lot of people didn’t bother zooming in so there’s shots of the grey concrete wall along with the water heater in the photos. Good thing photos are able to crop easily! I also enjoyed how it seemed like someone forgot to take the lens cap off at one point. Who knows what great photos were lost in the experience?

After trouncing Claude in Blades of Steel (5-1 baby!), Matt set up the Nintendo Wii as a surprise for everyone as I noticed we had some time to kill before the trivia challenge. The Wii is an amazing party treat and I hope everyone got a chance to try it out! Thanks to Matt and Benoit for hooking us up with the Nintendo treat!

The trivia challenge started up and everyone settled in to win the Palmer Trivia Cup – an odd vase I picked up earlier in the week for the victor. After a random selection of 16 questions, the challenge ended up in a tie so I asked the tie breaking question and both teams were off by 5 years so it was still a tie! I had to retire to the computer to come up with 2 more questions but alas, it was not meant to be and both teams got the correct answer! Considering it was well past midnight and people were itching to get their gifts open, I decided to call it a draw, although I know I scorned the guys team when I didn’t give them the point when they said ‘mele kalikemaka’ stood for ‘very merry christmas’ instead of just ‘merry christmas’. Perhaps I should have an arbitrary judge to make a ruling on this one.

The gift exchange was a hit and there were numerous alcohol related gifts being passed about. I ended up with a good bottle of wine and a sweet, sweet clock which, as you turn it, changes the display to either the temperature, the humidity level or the weater forecast! I am very impressed with the gift actually and was playing with it all last night. Thanks to Mike and Melissa for the sweet gift! Double thanks to you guys for picking up a little something for Vero and I! I scored a nice little prism with a guitar in it as well as some kick ass Star Wars Christmas tree ornaments! AWESOME! We put them on the mini-tree that Vero and I picked up for $5 that afternoon at the craft store.

The majority of the party left after the gift exchange (to my surprise for a moment, until someone pointed out that it was 2:30 in the morning! Holy Mackerel!) and the night descended into hanging out and chatting. I am pretty sure I invited everyone down to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation but perhaps I forgot to as I found myself the only person downstairs watching the movie and dozing off. This is what happens when you drink too much apple cider!

A few observations from the night to keep in mind for next year’s party:

• I think it may be a good idea to get away from the possibility of alcohol-related gifts. Sure, I can’t knock a bottle of rye coming my way, but it may not be for everyone. I think this stemmed from last year’s gift exchange having a beer mug set which was the catch of the party. Perhaps having a theme for gifts will change this outcome. Themes such as games, music, chocolate…something like that.
• Maybe the ice hockey tournament was a little too much. In the end, the tournament didn’t end up finished, and I heard it was a little disruptive when you would be chatting with someone and then they had to be hauled off to play their five minutes of ice hockey. I personally enjoyed it, but I can see that it may have been a pain for those not participating. I think this should be reserved for a Winter Olympics themed night were we’ll also have the luge down my basement stairs!
• I think the ‘bring something for everyone to munch on’ is a fabulous idea. It was a lot better than the random munchies that were provided last year (aka chips).
• The trivia challenge should be changed slightly next year to not have so many questions about dates. Also, it is unclear if people prefer the multiple choice or not. Eric pointed out that he would rather see a trivia challenge where it ends up having the team actually think of the answer instead of having a shouting match about it. Although, I think that part is hilarious. I think next year I’ll have a few people help me with the questions.

All in all, these are very minor points. I had an amazing time and I am sure everyone else did also. These are just minor changes that one has to tweak to make a party the best experience one can have. This reminds me of the trilogy of New Years’ Eve parties I had back home where the first one had some things to be tweaked, the second one was a little better, but the third one was a rip-roaring time! I ended the parties there as I knew I couldn’t top them. No worries though, the Christmas parties will be ongoing for years to come!

Feel free to share your memories of the event or any other suggestions that could better the experience next time around!

Thanks to all those bringing out treats, bringing games, helping decorate, helping prepare, basically anyone who brought forth the cheer in the Palmer/Losier house on Saturday night!

However, whoever put their gum on the carpet, no thanks are sent to you. Who the heck leaves gum on carpet anyhow? 😉