Here’s a rerun from a few years ago because tonight is, yet again, the Post Holiday Christmas Party. It’s Casino Night, which is waaaaaaay better than the hypnotist they had last year. I included that rerun too, Kiddy Cocktails.

Why don’t you just hand over the cash now and we’ll call it a night? 

Tonight is the annual ABCDE* (*not it’s real name) Post Holiday Christmas Party. This is the 7th or 8th year that my Hubby and I have attended, along with my brother, sister-in-law, and my parents. ABCDE is the trade organization for all the business owners my industry, and each year they put on a huge gala party in January. We all get gussied up, eat a delicious steak dinner and drink lots of wine.

Three years ago the entertainment portion of the party changed from a live band, to a casino where we play blackjack and craps with funny money. At the end of the night we cash in our funny money for tickets that are put into a drum, and then they pull out 10 tickets and award those people each with a crisp, new $100 bill.

Year #1 ~2003~ This was the first time I had ever watched Hubby gamble. Damn he’s good! I need to take him to Vegas baby! We always start out with $500 in chips, and by the end of the night I had a measley $200, but he had something like $3500!!! We wrote his name on all the tickets when he cashed out, put one side into the drum, handed my dad the other side, and left early because we had to get home to the babysitter. Around 11p.m my dad was calling us at home to say that Hubby had won $100. Oh, and my dad was the president the ABCDE organization too. He got lots of boos from the crowd as he collected Hubby’s prize.

Year #2 ~2004~ Okay, this year my sister-in-law and my Hubby tried to see who could win more chips by the end of the night. She’s very competitive, and well, so is Hubby. I’m pretty sure Hubby won, but only by a few chips. Once again, we cashed our our winnings (I had about $800), wrote our names on our own tickets, put one side into the drum, handed my dad the other side, and left early to get home to the babysitter. Once again, my dad called around 11p.m. to say that Hubby had won …. AGAIN! Then, he called back a few minutes later to say that I had won too!!! Oh gosh, he was boo’d twice by the crowd, they remembered what happened last year, and were jumping at the chance to razz him. My brother and sister-in-law were beside themselves that Hubby won two years in a row, and now I had won too. (na na na na boo boo!)

Year #3 ~2005~ Last year my parents did not attend, as they were in Cozumel on vacation. My mom was the president of ABCDE organization this year, and all eyes were on my brother and myself as we were representing her. We did our best to behave ourselves, and of course there was a small incident when at the blackjack table my sister-in-law accidently knocked over her hot butterscotchy drink AND my wine, and they both ended up all over my lap, making me smell like a butterscotch/merlot mixed drink. Thankfully my dress was black, and forgave the stain. So, at the end of the night, Hubby and I cashed in, wrote our names, yada yada yada, but we didn’t leave our tickets with my brother and sister-in-law because, well, we didn’t trust that if we won again that they’d honestly turn the winnings over to us. So we sat around and waited until close to midnight when they finally pulled 10 red tickets out of the drum. Imagine my surprise when my ticket was called! I won for the second year in a row!!!! And then, Hubby’s ticket was called! He won for the third year in a row!!!! There was no boo’ing this time around, but there was lots of razzing going on from my brother and sister-in-law.

Tonight is year #4, and I’m thinking, why bother with the tickets at all? Why not just hand over the cash now and we’ll call it a night?

Kiddy cocktails

The dinner party on Friday night was very nice. Although I’m in my 30’s, most the other business owners are near retirement. Not too many people wanted to come over and sit at the kiddy table with our group who included myself, my husband, my brother, his wife, a shop owner, her husband, and a new couple we had just met. One of the seasoned owner’s came over for a while, but quickly shuffled off ….. “everyone knows this is the younger table,” she said. Once she had a few drinks in her, and the lights went down when the dancing started, she came back. What can I say, we may be young, but we’re a lot more fun than some of those old folks who were up past their bedtime.

We usually have gambling (pretend of course) at this event, but this year someone decided that a hypnotist would be a good idea.

Note to everyone: a hypnotist is never a good idea.

They started out with about 20 people on stage, half got up and left when they clearly realized they weren’t going under. 10 remained, including 2 people from my table. The hypnotist was starting to sweat because it wasn’t going so well.

“Now there are bugs flying all around you, go ahead, swat those flies away.”

Of the 20 hands up there, only two were swatting flies.

“Now the flies are gone, now it’s really hot out, go ahead and fan yourself.”

And so it went. He’d make a suggestion, and there would be maybe one or two people who were taking the suggestion and doing something with it. Every now and then someone would peek open their eyes, take a look at the crowd, and then shut them again. Were there a few fakers up there? Possibly.

As I said, a hypnotist is never a good idea.

The night was still good, three out of the four women at my table are wine club members …. it was practically a mini-meeting.