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our 2007 christmas party by.peter
december.8

Since we were heading back to Sydney for the Christmas break, we decided to hold an early Christmas party with our friends in Seattle. It was a mix of many different groups of friends we had made in the year and a half we have been in Seattle. We had a full house of about 40 people. It was certainly a great opportunity for the different groups to get to know each other.

The food situation was handled nicely by making the event a potluck party with each person bringing a dish. I like to think of it as applying my knowledge of distributed processing. Along with food, some people brought party games.

Denis brought his xbox 360 with ‘Rockband’ and ‘Guitar Hero’. Guitar Hero is a two player game where each player has a guitar and each have to try and play the notes as they stream down the screen. Sounds simple but addictively enjoyable. Rockband is similar but also includes a drummer and a lead singer. In the living room, Rockband was an instant success with everyone on the night wanting to have a go on the three instruments. Only a few brave souls wanted the microphone.

In the family room we had Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), a two player game where each player attempts to dance on a mat in synchronization with the arrows indicated on the screen. Oh, you know how sometimes you go bowling and there’s that guy who brings his own gloves and bowling ball? Well, Zak brought his own dance mat for DDR. All they need to do now is create a new game that merges Rockband with DDR :).

Plenty of board games also turned up with at least three people bringing an old favorite, Settlers. Of all the games that were played that night, the only game that got everyone involved at the same time was the white elephant gift exchange. We saw it once in an episode of The Office and thought it was an interesting idea. It’s basically Secret Santa but with a devious twist. Everyone draws from hat to determine the order in which they get to receive their gifts. When it’s your turn, you can choose an unopened gift or steal a gift someone else has opened. Sounds simple and even silly but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The stealing element of the game ensured everyone was involved in the gift process from start to finish.

view the photos here

a shih tzu christmas party! by.cristina
december.1

the group that we met through the shih tzu meet-ups at marymoor park got together for a shih tzu christmas party today! it was hosted by ellie and andy at their home in redmond. peter, lana and i all had a great time .. and to top it off ... it snowed today!

welcome to the party!