Another Set of Elves

If you liked the early Christmas present from a few days ago, you'll laugh at this one too.

I found pictures of five more Sandbar staffers and uploaded them to Elf Yourself. There are new dances this year! Disco, Country, Charleston- and the traditional elf dance in the snow.

Here's the latest one:

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If I find time amongst all the Christmas craziness I'll do some more of these. Until then, entertain yourself with these. Oh, and Dave liked them so much that he was willing to pay $4.99 EACH to download them, so we can save them forever. The staff will love us.

An Early Christmas Present

Here's an early present for you, featuring some of your favorite Sandbar staffers.

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You can make your own e-cards featuring your own elves. Just go to www.elfyourself.com. This is almost my favorite part of the holiday season. Which means there will be more of these to come.

People Really Go to Bars on Christmas

The Sandbar is pretty much never closed. The only day of the entire year that the bar is closed is Christmas Eve day, mostly because nobody wants to work.

The opposite is true on Christmas Day- there’s usually always at least one staff member who volunteers to open up the bar and serve drinks that night. And, though it may be surprising to some people, there is usually a decent crowd of customers on Christmas night.

Blair and Andrew worked Christmas night this year. The usual group of staff and regulars gathered earlier in the night, but by midnight there were about thirty people hanging around. I guess that by the time Christmas Day is nearly over, people are tired of their family and all the food and they just want to get back to something normal, so The Sandbar provides a sort of escape.

We’re happy to provide the much-needed service.

Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful holiday, whatever it may be that you celebrate.

The Sandbar will be closed on Christmas Eve, but we’ll be open again on Christmas Day. Which, strangely, often turns out to be a busy night.

Back soon!

Champions of Tippy Cup

After the presents were opened and under-the-table deals were made to exchange various unwanted gifts for other slightly more desirable ones, some folks might have wondered "what do we do now?"

Not us, though. Dave had planned ahead to bring maximum entertainment to his staff, and after throwing many successful parties at our house, which always (thankfully) ended up in the garage instead, we know what the party-goers want and it comes in the form of a long, tall, blue table.

A rousing game of Tippy Cup began and kept going for hours, with players rotating in and out as they either lost, or got bored, or got kicked off their team. The cool thing about this game is that it doesn’t absolutely require that you drink alcohol; most people choose beer when they play, but I have been known to play with Kool-Aid in my cup before because I wanted to play that bad but didn’t want the hangover.

Sometimes there were just a couple people on each side of the table; other rounds grew to include so many players that it was difficult to know just which side the person was in, they were scrunched around the table that much. Sometimes it was girls against boys.

The girls won the final round:

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We hope you enjoyed reading about our annual holiday party. Stay tuned for more fun stuff!

Let the Games Begin

After the prizes were handed out for stylish Christmas wear, we got down to business with the main event- the gift exchange.

Everyone was welcome to participate and the only requirement was to bring a $10 wrapped/bagged gift. It could be new; it could be used; it could be something you found on the side of the road, although we hoped not. 

Dave mixed things up a bit this year. Usually we start with the youngest person, or the one with the least seniority at the bar, which means that Dave always gets that coveted spot of last to pick a gift. (Coveted because all the gifts but one have been opened by this time, and he can steal whatever he wants or take a chance by opening the last remaining gift). This year, he handed out playing cards to each of us and then started with the ace of spades, working down the suit and on to the next one, to determine who picked.

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This year, the game didn’t get as outrageous and fun as it has in years past. There wasn’t much stealing of the gifts, most people chose to unwrap a new one instead. Not fun, people.

Some of the gifts that made an appearance this year:

  • a furry black Russian-like hat with ear flaps (perfect for winter scooter riding!)
  • the first season of "Dukes of Hazzard" on DVD
  • a remote control Tonka truck
  • a bag of chips
  • a stocking full of promotional adidas wear, including giant shorts that could fit twelve people
  • liquor, of course
  • a silver replica of our beloved Frank in the Tank
  • the infamous KISS mug from a couple years ago
  • a boudoir photo of Joe (scary!)

My favorite? The gift Dave contributed, a DVD of "Darren’s Dance Grooves" that he proceeded to give to me to be wrapped. Before I wrapped it, I photoshopped Dave’s head onto Darren’s and retitled the video "Dave’s Dance Grooves." He’ll think twice next year before asking me to do his wrapping chores.

Since everyone was so polite, or maybe they just wanted to move on to bigger and better games, the gift exchange was over much more quickly than normal.

Tomorrow: Drinking Games!