Work Party - and complaints!

Saturday night was our work Christmas Party. Now I agreed to change my schedule before I knew the dates of the party - but other people decided they did not need to work this other weekend - so I partly felt screwed. But it has worked out wonderfully so that we can make our yearly SF trip during the week when things will be calmer - wetter, but calmer.

The venue for the party FINALLY changed - www.casarealevents.com - and so there were HUNDREDS of people there! I am sure everyone was surprised at how quickly the tickets sold out. A new venue and better yet, 5 minutes from the house! So it was okay that I had to work the next day (even tho the people that did not go to the party were the ones who asked for call and LOA's!!!!!)

Cold cold cold night. And the place is huge with tall tall ceilings. So it didnt warm up inside until most of the people were there. I think we were there at least 1/2 hour before I even took off my wrap. When we went to buy drink tickets we were told there were bars inside and outside - I muct have looked horrified or something because they quickly answered that there were heaters outside! So initially we all gathered in a large hall and they passed around goodies to nibble on - mainly fishy stuff...

I dont know if this event center had never handled such a large crowd before or what. But not only did the food stink, but service was soooooooo poor. We walked in to large tables of 12 and I dont know how many there were - we were smack dab in the center at #25. All the tables were set with shrimp cocktail - obviously frozen shrimp with a mere smear of bland cocktail sauce. After about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes those were partially cleared away. The serve took the glass that held the shrimp - when they served the salads you were left holding the plate the cocktail had been on until they finished serving the salads and came back to take the plates - and even so they forgot to serve one of the people at the table! The salads were nice. And then after another 45 minutes or so, came the entrees. Watery mashed potatoes, with 6 brussel sprouts on top of the potatoes (as a definite non brussel sprout lover, this was definitely a no no!), the meat sauce was on the plate on the opposite side from the meat - and partially on top of the mash potatoes....the tiny tiny thigh/drumstick of the chicken plate was very good. The steak was raw. I like my steak rare - well medium rare. This was seared on the outside and raw on the inside. Several people complained and they took the steaks back to cook a little more....instead they brought them another entire plate with....you guessed it!....another piece of raw steak!!! As long as it took to serve this meal, there should have been time to cook the steak! I didnt have lunch that day in anticipation of this meal, so I did gag it down (literally, the last piece, I almost had to spit out).

There were 2 bottles of wine on the table for 12 people, with notes telling how to purchase more wine. The chardonney was ok - altho that day when we went to a few wineries on their Holiday Trails (www.lvwine.org/event/68/1259989200_126007) I tasted much better wine. We did empty that bottle but the cab was not finished.

Eventually the dessert came out - a very decent sized hunk of turtle cheesecake - since Tom doesnt like cheesecake and I dont like chocolate, I of course, ate the caramel topped part of the cheesecake for both of us! By the time I finished it was 10 PM and it was time to head home since I had to get up early SUnday for work! Oh, keep in mind that the hours for the party were from 6 P - 11:30 P and I just mentioned that by the time we finished dessert it was 10 P.......very slow service. I know there were a lot of people to serve, but still....

I am so mad at hubby - I would have loved to have a nice photo of us but look at his face - coupled with the line of "drool" coming out of his mouth!

Isnt this a cool library Christmas tree? I found it on another website and wanted to share it....