Hubby and I went to a grand total of 3 “parties” this year. Stunning number, eh?
The first was a “family day” sort of thing for his battalion – kids could get their picture taken with Santa and participate in craft events. As you can imagine, TONS and TONS of kids – running around, crying, screaming, yelling, laughing, dancing, singing … cacophony. Hubby and I were immediately subdued the minute we walked through the door. That kind of scene is not pleasant for the introverted or the bashful.
The second party was the Spouse Ornament Exchange and I was the only one to go because, as the name implied, it was only for spouses.
That was a fun night. We each were to bring a dish and an ornament to the party. I chose drinks since I was told that drinks are always necessary and frankly not knowing what it was all about, was reticent to take jerk wings to dish out to unknown people. Turns out, that was completely unfounded – I could have jolly well made the wings and taken them without any shame or repercussions, but my drinks were well received nevertheless.
Once the food was out of the way, we all stood in a circle and played a little game. One of the ladies read “‘Twas the night before Christmas” peppered with the words “left” and “right”. Once she uttered one of those words, we were to pass our gift in the direction indicated. It started out slowly with a pass to the left or right maybe once every other sentence. We ended up at one point having to pause and let everybody catch up since she said something along the lines of “right right right left right” in quick succession.
At the end of the piece, no one had the gift they started with, and no one needed to reveal which gift was theirs if they didn’t want to. Perfect.
After that we all sat in a circle and the REAL game began. When we arrived, we were handing a slip of paper and asked to write 3 things down that people may or may not know about you. At the end of the night, FRG leader for our company got up and shuffled the papers and tried to “guess who” from each and every slip of paper. Luckily or unluckily, she got to mine about 2 or 3 into the pot:
“Shy, from Jamaica, loves M&Ms”
She didn’t even pause when she was done reading, she looked straight at me said “That’s you!”. Everybody giggled, those near to me patted me on the back, and we moved on.
TOOOOOOO easy.
At the end of the night, I knew a couple more faces and maybe one more name – I suck at this socializing thing, don’t I?
Final party was actually the unit’s FRG eatings – we all gathered at Fuddruckers for dinner. And just chilled.
Christmas is tainted this year: Grandpa dying on Thanksgiving, Bear being surrendered a week before Christmas day, hubby working both Christmas Eve AND Christmas nights … it isn’t going to be a blast of a Christmas for either of us, but it’s the last one we’ll have together for 2 years, so we are going to make it the best ever. We’ll host our own party one of these nights when he’s off and we’ll just use this year as a “something to remember me by” or a “something to come home to” kind of celebration.
Besides, I am beginning to think that partying is a thing of the past for both of us…. how sad is it that partying is “old” for us already? 
Bah! The whole concept of partying was old for me since a few years out of college. MUCH nicer to sit, eat, drink, play games and be merry with a few close friends.
What you all have planned for this season’s celebrations?
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