Gateway Woods Staff Christmas Party

I've been so looking forward to telling you about the staff Christmas party we enjoyed last week! 

When I worked at IWU, they had elaborate Christmas parties every year. Employees could bring their families, get all dressed up, and come to a come-and-go evening on campus. (I've told you before about my embarrassing affection for the iced coffee punch at this party.) Santa greeted the kids and gave them presents, and the HR department greeted the employees with a little paper bonus gift. And of course - food for all!

I always enjoyed those parties, and this year I was able to enjoy a completely different kind of party here at Gateway Woods. I have no idea what their normal Christmas parties look like, of course, because this is my first Christmas here. BUT I can assure you that they win all the points (and more) for coming up with a creative party for the staff that was all pandemically proper.

The day before the party, Ryan and I (and every other employee or employee couple) received this delivery:

Okay first of all, isn't that SO CUTE? Secondly...they hand lettered and drew every single one of those. And to help you fully understand what that entailed, I borrowed this picture from Facebook:

Emily (pictured) and Cordin (behind the camera) were amazing party coordinators! 

Accompanying the box was this little snack tray, which we got to enjoy during the party:

We were all encouraged to wear our best festive/ugly Christmas garb, too, by the way. The party was held over Zoom, but we shared our Zoom with Tim, Justine, and Isla, since all of us were on duty together that day.

But before I tell you about the party itself, I have to show you all the contents of that amazing box. We were permitted to dig into it when the Zoom part began. Taped to the lid of the box was the agenda for the day. (I adore agendas, so that was a gift in and of itself.)

And then...all the little gifts! Wassail mix, hot chocolate mix, cookies, marshmallows, mugs and leather cozies, gift cards for the coffee shop, and a book! 

It's actually rather embarrassing to admit how totally toddler I became when I opened this. It was all SO MUCH FUN!

We were invited to have some hot chocolate and enjoy the snacks during the party. They recognized new staff and those crossing milestone years and then divided us into Zoom breakout rooms to play games! (We played one game where everyone in the breakout room shared a random and little known fact about themselves, and then we all guessed which fact was about which person. The second game was Scattergories.)

We know it wasn't the party they would have chosen to have, but we thought it was incredibly creative, and we had a great time, actually! 

Great job, Gateway!! You made a virtual Christmas party so much fun!