Holiday Party Review. 

Part I

Alan and I have 3 (possibly 4) holiday parties to attend this year, due to our various jobs. I've never been invited to so many job-related holiday parties in one holiday season. So, I thought it might be fun to compare them and highlight the things I found most interesting.  Last night we attended our first, for my company. 

Location: Hilton, Santa Clara

Time Frame: Saturday night 6-11pm

Food: Choice of salmon or steak.

Entertainment: There was a DJ, and a person from the office was in charge of getting us to play games, like musical chairs.

Number of people: 40-50 from my region.

At first, when we arrived, I was very nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I had a slight dressing emergency that day and I really didn't know anybody who was going to be at the party, as my office was recently realigned to a new region, and I was only person who was attending from my office. The first couple of minutes was a little awkward, as I went around the room saying hi to people. Thank the non-denominational holiday deities, there was plenty of alcohol. Everybody was happy and in a party-mood. I never once herd a word of work-related conversation. People danced to pop music, and played silly games for silly prizes. All in all, I think it was good fun.

In terms of food and drink, the salad was horrible: warm leaves of lettuce topped with two slices of tomato and  soggy sugar coated walnuts. The main dish was pretty good; I chose steak. However, eating the thick cut of steak with a butter knife was a little difficult. (come on Hilton! Inexcusable.) The dessert was a slice of chocolate cake, with cherry filling.  The cake tasted like it was made with box mix, and a little too much canola oil. The cherry flavor was strong, so it helped disguise the canola oil taste. In general the food, aside from the main dish, was pretty disappointing. The alcohol was good though. I had a very nice long island ice tea and some wine and, towards the end, my new Area VP invited me to take a generous tequila shot "for the road" with him and a couple others. (Don't worry, Alan drove). I haven't had a tequila shot in years. And,  I could probably go a couple more years before I have another. 

In conclusion: the Hilton servers were attentive, the party was fun, the food was mostly disappointing, and the new AVP is high on my "cool boss" list.