"Tell Us Something We Don’t Know…"

Last night was Hubby’s company Christmas party. I can’t even remember the last time I worked for a company that has a holiday party, but Hubby always has one, no matter where he’s working. He’s only been at the firm a month, and I haven’t had a chance to come into the office for anything, so I knew I was going into this knowing no one but him.

It’s a small CPA firm he works for, maybe about ten employees, and when we arrived everyone was just standing around a buffet table (the party was hosted by the firm’s owner). Hubby had given me the “411” in the car on the way to the party about who was who and what their quirks are (i.e. Owner a bit touchy-feely, so-and-so has a loud laugh, etc), so I was prepared… somewhat.

We walked in the door and I handed the hostess the tray of goodies I had prepared (sugared vanilla cookies and turtles, in case you were wondering), and we walked into the dining room where the buffet table was situated. Everyone was standing around the table. And I mean AROUND the table. Every so often, the people would somewhat rotate, clockwise, around the table to end up in front of a different dish. It wasn’t planned this way, I don’t think, it just happened.

Of course, I had to get introductions of everyone, and I felt somewhat like people were appraising me. They haven’t known Hubby that long either – it was as if they were trying to figure out more about him by evaluating the type of woman he married. I felt a bit self-conscious – everyone else knew each other, and I’m the interloper that didn’t quite fit!

After a time, the owner’s wife called us into the living room to be seated. We sit down and she tells us we are going to go around in a circle, and tell everyone something about us that is unique, that no one would know. At this point, I was thinking, WHAT THE HECK! This is absolutely insane! The Owner started, and let me tell you, the man talks so insanely slow, you can’t help but think to yourself, “Spit it out, man!” It’s like the gears in his head were slowly slowly turning, and we’re just watching the process take place. It actually turned out quite interesting as it progressed. Hubby and I quickly found out that we must be the only people in that firm who have not gone somewhere to do mission work (I guess we’re the firm heathens?). Some people took the opportunity to tell these long, drawn out tales about who they are, so it got a little long. I, of course, took advantage of the fact that no one knew anything about me, and picked some random, harmless factoid to share. Hubby picked an anecdote that wasn’t embarrassing (thank goodness – to those of you who know him, you also know that the internal censor from his brain to his mouth doesn’t always work! He loves to shock people and be “funny”).

Once that was done, we played a word game called “Catch Phrase” (which I rocked, by the way, because, unlike all the accountants there, I may not be able to do long division in my head, but I know words!), and then the Owner passed out gifts to the employees. They all got gift cards to a local jeweler!

Owner pulled Hubby aside and informed him that he was to buy something for ME with it. I think it is Owner’s way of buttering up the families pre-tax-season, during which, the wives will be bearing the brunt of the load at home.

Fine by me, I’m getting jewelery!

(P.S. Completely unrelated to last night’s party, but… Pumpkin rolled over for the first time this morning. Whew – mommy can quit freaking out about it now!).