Staff Christmas party!

Each year at The Quilt Patch we have a staff Christmas party, and we alternate every year. One year we invite the spouses / dates, and the alternate year we have just 'the girls'! This year was a husband year!
Jeanne and I hosted the event at Jeanne's house.
We started with food cooked by Jeanne and I (ok, well, mostly by Costco and Jeanne's oven!)

There was a ton of food! And it was all very yummy! The picture of the table was taken before all the food was actually on the table!!
There was lots of visiting! And even though we see each other at work, it's always fun to visit in a social setting! We even had a party crasher! The lovely Nikki, who left us for a 'real' job, brought chocolates and bribed her way in!

Nikki the party crasher!

Everyone had a great time visiting and mingling!

Jeanne and I planned to wear the same skirt that night to give our staff a good laugh! And to single us out as the hostesses! One of us looked voluptuous and the other like a telephone pole!

The leopard print skirts!

We even managed to get a great staff photo, which we made the party crasher take!

from left to right, Janice, Colleen, Yvonne, Jo, Jeanne, Shelley
Flo and Jeri.
Missing - Charlene!

After we all gorged ourselves on the amazing food, we had cheesecake!  We issued a "Cheesecake Challenge" to our staff! They all had to bring a cheesecake to the staff party that was to be judged by everyone! Some of the girls took this very seriously, others, not so much! 2 of the cheesecakes were bought, 2 made by the actual staff, 1 by someone's Mother, and 1 by someone's husband!!
As for the boughten cakes, one tried to disguise hers by fancying it up on her own tray! The other just whipped off the plastic lid!

This was the winning cheesecake!

The cheesecake judging was simple, presentation, taste and apparent effort! Most people took the judging VERY seriously, sampling every cake sometimes more than once!
Flo took the trophy, yes, we had a trophy....nothing but the best for the staff at The Quilt Patch!
She did tell us the secret ingredient......lots of booze!

Jeanne and I like to make sure each of our staff and their guests leaves the party with a gift, so we spend a great amount of time choosing just the right gifts to wrap and have fun with! We do a gift exchange that consists of stealing other peoples opened gifts! Its always fun to enjoy this game with a large group!
Some of the gifts included, a gift basket with nachos, chips, salsa and napkins. Coffee mugs and hot chocolate, a case of beer, a bottle of wine, a book on the history of Rock and Roll, portable coolers, popcorn bowls filled with popcorn and napkins, and much more! The gift Jeanne and I were really waiting to see opened was the framed picture of us! The picture that is in the back of our Urban Country Quilts book! It was quite funny, cause really, who wants a framed picture of their bosses in their home?? Well in the end Flo ended up with it, and after all the stealing was done and our guests were admiring everyones gifts, we revealed that the framed picture was in fact a most fabulous gift with a gift card to Boston Pizza taped to the back of the frame! It certainly was Flo's night!

Flo's winnings!

It was a very fun night, and every year we wonder how we'll top the previous year! If any of you heard about last years staff Christmas party....whew! The girls are still talking about it! And the year we sent our staff and their husbands on a scavenger hunt....fun! One of our most fun events was the year we gave each of our staff money in an envelope, drove them to the mall (after a few glasses of wine of course!) took away their purses, and set them loose to buy something for themselves! There were prizes for the first one back, the biggest bang for their buck, and more! Jeanne and I are nothing if not creative!
However if any of you happen to have any great ideas for next year.....let us know!!

Merry Christmas!