This past week has been full of fun holiday activities. When Microsoft bought Nokia, my legal group absorbed two members of the Nokia legal team. They were in town visiting last week so we moved all of our usual holiday festivities to last week so they could join in. This included a lunch and toy exchange (where the toys were donated to charity after) at my boss’s boss’s house, and a smaller group lunch at Maggiano’s. It was an exciting week.
In addition to my work holiday events, last Thursday Dustin and I went to Sun Liquor’s first annual Nog Ball. Sun Liquor’s Erik Champan hand makes the eggnog from fresh eggs, cream, apple brandy, bourbon, rum and sugar. Sun Liquor’s Aged Eggnog is made in small batches and aged for 30 days in glass, a process that breaks down the fats and proteins, making the nog silky smooth and delicious. The nog is usually only available on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but this year they decided to offer it at a party as well, along with some amazing Seattle snacks.
^^Dustin and I in our ugly Christmas sweaters^^
We had a great time eating fry bread tacos and eggnog topped Top Pot donuts, and sipping Seattle bourbon, boozy milkshakes and of course eggnog. I think I gained 6 lbs just at this one event. #worthit
On Friday evening I attended the Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure (&) Operations Holiday party as Dustin’s date. (sidebar: can we please note that the below is Dustin’s Microsoft group’s holiday party, while mine is a gift exchange in someone’s livingroom and we don’t even keep the gifts?! Must be nice to work for a group that makes money and has a substantial morale budget haha.) It was the fanciest holiday party I’d ever been to (granted, I don’t have much to compare it to) and we had a blast. It was at the Hyatt in downtown Bellevue which is huge and beautiful to begin with. There was a prefunk for Dustin’s smaller group at one of the restaurant bars in the hotel before the main party. The prefunk included chicken quesadillas and an open bar and I got to meet some of Dustin’s coworkers and their dates before the actual party began which was nice.
The actual party took up two ballrooms on two floors. There was an Alice in Wonderland theme and it included a million open bars, servers walking around with plates of really delicious snacks, an oxygen bar that may or may not have saved us from terrible hangovers the next day, a sit down dinner, a photo booth, gambling, dueling pianos, karaoke (with a live band as your backup) and at the end of the night, they brought out a tater-tot bar and it might have been the best thing that has ever happened to me.
^^Posing with the flamingo croquet^^
^^Giant flowers FTW^^
We had so much fun at the party, and we were glad that we got a room at the Hyatt so we could order $10 room service beers and then immediately fall asleep after the party. Good times.
Saturday we did a lot of Christmas shopping. We shopped in Bellevue first and then Saturday evening we headed up to the Seattle Premium Outlets to finish up things. While we were there we stopped in the Kate Spade store because they were having a crazy sale (50% off everything + and additional 20% off handbags). I scored a cross body bag, originally $248 for $35! Best score everrr. After the outlets and watching Marcus Mariota win the Heisman while snacking on fries at the Ram, we headed back to Seattle and stopped by Sephora on our way home to get some makeup for me as well as some spa-night-essentials. We then had a spa night and I fell asleep on the couch right as SNL was starting (fail).
Obiv we had baby skin on Sunday. I even refrained from wearing makeup all day. I’m sure Kate really appreciated that during our dinner together that evening ;)
It’s been fun doing holiday things even if my pants are a bit tighter this week. I’m sure this work week is going to feel a million years long with no holiday events planned and as I look forward to my trip to Ecuador happening a week from today (eek!). I hope you’re all having a happy holiday season as well! xo
