Colds, anniversary's, birthday's, board meetings... and one great Christmas party!

*Updated with pictures*

So we're finally starting to feel better... Ben's started as a cold and stayed an icky cold for more than a week, I on the other hand had a cold for a week with a sinus and ear infection, just for good measure. Thank goodness for OTC's and antibiotics! Unfortunately with Ben, once he gets a cough, it takes months to get rid of it. In boot camp a few years ago he came down with a case of pneumonia - and for fear of getting held back, or in trouble - it was awful before he was spied on the grounds by the Doc and ordered to sick call. He had quite a bit of lung damage due to the ordeal and because of that he can have a cough from a minor cold last him a good 6 months before it's completely gone. I'm thankful that the lungs heal over time, the last cough he had only trailed out 4ish months... so there's still hope for a healty guy! :o)

Our anniversary fell on Ben's Monday - which means he leaves an hour earlier for roll call at the precinct, which didn't give us a lot of time to do anything by the time I got home... So we 'celebrated' the day prior with a stop at the furniture store, where we've been eyeing a bookcase, and dinner at the Olive Garden. We got home just in time to curl up on the couch with our blankets, tissue, and water bottles to fall asleep from the PM cold meds! I know, I know - we're hopeless romantics... Alright, maybe we're just hopeless.
Ben did surprise me with a bouquet of my favorites: Tulips!

Tuesday my aunt came over to help me make it Christmas at our house, while my uncle was helping me figure out what and how to solve my curtain rod issue in this new place... Funny sized and placed windows are just one of my problems.

Saturday was my company's Holiday Party down at the Waterfront Seafood Grill on Pier 70. It was beautiful down there! ... And COLD! I was responsible for finding the 'entertainment' for the evening . You wouldn't think that 18 CPA's and 9 bookkeeping, audit, and supporting professionals would be that much fun... but you haven't met us! I work with an awesome group of people! Short of the 17 mile=90 minutes (each way) commute - I work at a great place! I found a Seattle company that hires out talent/actors. We had a 'roving' magician come that was totally awesome! I thought it would be a bit cheesy, but this guy rocked! And as a surprise to all but 2 other staff members, I hired actors to play Bumbling Waiters... they were hilarious! Talk about a sore thumb though, this place was the nicest I'd ever been to, and these actors were spilling water and being loud, and then ended up sitting on people's laps... (prompting my husband to jump onto my boss's lap) it was great! One guy was posing as a 'manager' and ended up pulling one of the waiters out by his coat collar. Ben (who was seated right next to the managing partner of the firm) was almost up and trying to break it up. This waiter was actually pretty convincing. He was an older gentleman, with a great face... He played the "I'm old and going senile" role quite well. When he got yanked out and was getting yelled at by he manager, is when people got a bit nervous. The walls at the restaurant were glass so you could see how animated they were. Steve (big boss) and Ben started to discuss the legitimacy of the situation and both were fairly convinced this old guy was getting canned. Ben said, "From a guy who mostly has to scold and yell at people for a living - this looks pretty authentic!" It started to fall apart when they came back in and started this love triangle thing with the 3rd actor/waitress. Once the whole Father/Daughter/boyfriend and butt prints in the asparagus came out they immediately announced themselves as actors and broke into a round of Jingle Bells.
Steve handed out envelopes with a bunch of gift cards and announced the new perks for company: Anywhere, anytime, any event that ANY employee decides they've had maybe one drink too many or doesn't feel safe driving home - call a cab and bring him the bill! Now coming at a group of decent professional people, this shouldn't cost them too much - but is just another way they like to take care of us.

Sunday was Mom and Grammy's birthday party, where the family finally had a Thanksgiving meal together (minus Aunt Debbie who's not feeling well and lives in Tim-buk-to... near Port Townsend) It was yummy!
Ben got himself into a heap when he became president of or new HOA, so we drug our feet over to the neighbors for a board of directors meet and greet type deal. We were hoping to use our colds to get us out of there early... but ended up having a really good time, and stayed chatting until (too) late!

Monday was an ear infection=no equilibrium day for me! After leaving hand prints all over the hall and a couple near misses with the floor - I crawled my dizzy self back to bed and snuggled back into my boy for the day.

I of course, left my camera in the car - which valet then hid from us Saturday night, so I have no pictures :o( Ben looked so cute though! New shirt and tie - he was mighty handsome! I sported a new, much shorter, do that will significantly decrease our shampoo bill :o)
The pictures I leave you with are of my pretty tulips from my husband! ...And one of our Christmas tree. It was in a corner last year and didn't look quite so bare, this year I'm searching for more decor!




*I know Christmas is not about Santa! However, I love my Santa decorations! If we can all have themed birthday celebrations... So can Jesus. This year Jesus' birthday party is of the Santa theme... and it's mainly just the guy's clothes as you can see from the last picture :o)*