"Holiday" Parties Galore!!

I know all the invitations say "holiday" parties but I just can't buy into that. In my world, they will always be Christmas parties! This year I have been to several. And I've dragged Brian along with me to most!! Of course, being "dragged" may not be the right words for at least one of them!

On Friday night, it was the White House Christmas Party!! I love going to it every year! I love seeing the decorations and all that. But not to sound jaded (which I recognize I am!), the thing that excites me more than anything else is to see the White House through my guest's eyes. I see the White House all the time and what could be better than freshly seeing it through Brian's eyes!

Earlier in the day, I went to Brian's office Christmas party. I explained the WH Christmas Party would be fairly similar except that it happens to be at the White House and you happen to meet the leader of the free world during the party. But the rest of it was just walking around and meeting my co-workers.

But when I step back and think about it, it is a pretty awesome experience. Even if you've done it for the past seven years! Here are my highlights:

*The decorations are really magnificent!! Even prettier than my little tree at home! :)

*The Gingerbread White House is always impressive!! They say that it takes more than a month to make this thing and it's pretty awesome. I've only made a gingerbread house once in my life and I can assure you there was no electricity and there wasn't edible furniture in the rooms!!
*We get to sit on the furniture!! I'm sure I've mentioned this in the past but for work, we NEVER get to sit on the furniture. EVER. And we don't get to roam around. We're usually in a pen somewhere like herded cattle. But not this one night. I made sure that Brian and I took advantage of this privilege!!*Meeting POTUS and FLOTUS!! This is always a highlight!! I've had great encounters a previous parties (including a birthday kiss by 43!!) but this year was a great one! Brian asked the current POTUS for some advice for the basketball team we are coaching (I'm sure you'll hear more about that in a future post!). POTUS wouldn't stop talking!! He gave some advice of what to emphasize with the 7 and 8 year olds. And FLOTUS chimed in too!! I'm not even sure if they stopped talking for the picture! I'll let you know when we get the picture!!

We really did have an awesome time and I think we must have taken a million pictures!! I'll just share a few more!! :)

Then on Saturday night (after the Living Christmas Tree), we went to my network's Christmas party. It was at the Nationals Stadium again and included batting practice. Brian was excited to see that I don't swing like a girl and I actually made contact with the ball. We had a good time with the batting practice and then listening to several of my colleagues sing some karaoke!! And Brian was such a trooper to put up with mingling with my co-workers for two nights in a row!!