Holiday Cheer at the Office

Not once in all the years I worked from home - or even in the office for that matter - for my previous company did I ever get to participate in a Christmas time holiday party.  There was a brief time when I first started when they would allow us to expense $10 on lunch, but that was deemed to be too much and retracted after two years.

But now it's a whole new ballgame.  I get to work for a company that embraces fun holiday activities and indulges the funky whims of its employees (remember Halloween?).  So when "Hat Day" was put on the calendar of events for M's holiday activities, Tarah jumped at the chance to make me the most fantastic fascinator and get me a "win" in the competition.

And actually I won!  Tomorrow night her and I will be spending the gift certificate to one of Portland's premier ice cream shops, Ruby Jewel, most happily.

Check out my competition. Those lights on Erik's cheesehead were blinking.

Also part of the festivities was a gingerbread house making contest.  Our team - Corporate Benefits - sacrificed an afternoon of actual work and dove into creating our Mt Crumpit and Whoville gingerbread "house."

 The finished product!

Go team!

We were pretty proud of ourselves.  And then we showed up to deliver our house for the competition.

(This would be M Financial Plaza. That little house on the top is the actual house we had to decorate.)

This one was complete with a moving train.  It was built by Compliance and had a 'disclaimer' posted.

This last one is probably my favorite - its the house from Pixar's 'Up."

Yep, we were toast.  But we had a ball!  Beats a $10 lunch any day of the week.