Party Season Opens

One of the events my wife scrupulously scheduled her trip to Panama around was the annual company Christmas party. We always have a great time there, this was going to be our last one, oh, and there’s dancing involved. Keene Friend joined us as I was putting my Favorite Panamanian through her usual twenty minute countdown to departure time. She’d gone out Christmas shopping with elements of the Panamanian mafia earlier in the day so had to compress her usual six hour prep phase. As usual she merged looking devastatingly cute.

Wife and I at Christmas Party

It’s always a little weird to socialize with the employees because they are at first a little reticent to hang out with the boss. The infusion of alcohol seems to address those concerns. That happened fairly quickly because within the first hour I found myself out in the parking lot with a group where I was induced to sample his home brewed moonshine and honey wine. Both Keene Friend and I received complementary bottles of the honey wine. There was a photo booth available with a lot of headgear props that we had a lot of fun with throughout the night. It was a great night and I paused as we walked out of the place to savor the time I’d had there because it would be the last company Christmas party with  my pending retirement.

First Friday was an Excellent Kickoff for Weekend - Someone's a Lucky Guy

Dressed up and Ready to Party

Wife with Keene Friend

Other Side of Our Table

My Dazzling Date

Our Honey Wine Acquisitions

However this was only the first of several Christmas themed parties on the agenda. I have three more this week to attend so I couldn’t wax too melancholy about the passage of this one. It will mean that my wife and I will go back to hosting a Christmas party at home in future years which was always an event on a number of levels. Keene Friend disappeared the next morning before the sun rose which allowed my wife and I to nurse our respective wounds from the night before. I’d forgotten about the while alka seltzer thing. I must be getting senile.  Those damned front yard Christmas deer were a jumbled mass strewn across the lawn as some ferocious winds dominated our hill top all Sunday.

Photo Booth Silliness

 

This was fine since football was available and the morning grocery store run involved the makings for my wife’s annual Christmas cookie creation. The house is going to smell incredible all week. That will have to wait however since she also had her second shingles vaccine injection yesterday. By the late evening she was in significant discomfort which lasted throughout the night. If this goes according to the first shot she should start feeling better tonight. She was planning on going to her Zumba class this morning. When she revealed those plans yesterday after getting her shot I only laughed and asked if she wanted to make a wager.

Wife in Panama Last Week

With herVery Silly Sister and her Son

The granddaughters are really getting into the Christmas spirit. The BRS mounted a new platform in the kitchen to assist my son in his own Christmas cookie prep. When I talked to him later he was bemoaning the lack of efficiency the BRS brought to the effort with cookie dough and flour ending up liberally spread around the room and on her person. He’s such an engineer. Riggins was the beneficiary of the dropped cookie dough and appeared to be on a serious sugar high while we talked.

FBR On Playground Yesterday

Hamming up for Camera

With one of her Best Buds

The FBR had spent the morning at the park since her mother was recovering from her annual girls night out for karaoke so we were not the only ones partying on Saturday night.  Details on that event were seriously lacking. The FBR is now totally into Christmas and wanted to see all of the decorating results her abuela had achieved before the vaccine effects kicked in. She also put me on notice that she expects some snow on the ground when she arrives later this week. Something I’ll have to work on.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the BRS; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Deckzilla Dude – senior citizen carpenter/contractor; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of public who come to every Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on public assistance along with demeanor issues