by Debbi | Dec 19, 2007 | Christmas
You all know how much we at The Sandbar love costumes and theme parties. As part of our entertainment for the employee party, everyone was encouraged to wear the most festive attire they could find.
Once we were reasonably sure that most of the invitees were present, we handed out slips of paper and took nominations for the best dressed. We even had prizes ready!
John was the runaway winner, thanks to his mom’s Christmas vest (and possibly the mustache). He was awarded a musical penguin that dances to "Ice Ice Baby."
Chris took second place with a sweater he scavenged from his neighbor. His prize was a set of plush reindeer antlers complete with battery-operated lights.
After those two, the votes were wide open- most of the rest of the people there who participated got at least one vote. Too bad Ken- with his dickie and suede jacket- arrived after the contest.
Remember, join us at The Sandbar on Friday night for another round of tacky holiday wear! We’ll have prizes at 6:30 and midnight.
Tomorrow: The Presents!
by Debbi | Dec 19, 2007 | Christmas
They just wouldn’t stay in the closet.
For years, our grandmothers and mothers and aunts have worn them. Our moms even made some of us wear them before we had a choice. (Some moms even bought or made all three of their kids new ones every single year AND kept them for all these years, only to be dragged back out for tacky sweater parties. You know who you are.) Admit it, you breathed a sigh of relief when you thought you’d never be forced to put one on again, and you made fun of people who did.
The Christmas sweater is back. And it was back in full force at the annual Sandbar party on Sunday.
Andrew was the Christmas Cowboy with his red plaid shirt and furry white vest. Dave (very creatively and all by himself) hot glued battery-operated Christmas lights onto a Snoopy t-shirt. And Jen scored big when Scotty found the Christmas sweater goldmine at Lasting Impressions, probably insulting female shoppers in the process.
Tegan and Ashley were decked out from head to toe, thanks to Ashley’s mom shipping entire Christmas outfits to them all the way from Tennessee. Patterned tights, slippers, holiday print turtlenecks- they had it all.
We had a flyer with the party details hanging behind the bar for the staff. Apparently all week long, customers saw the flyer and thought it was another Sandbar theme night for everyone. More than one customer expressed their excitement about pulling out their tacky holiday sweaters to the bartender on duty, only to be let down with the "it’s kind of an employee thing" line.
So, we’re going to share the fun. This Friday, we’re encouraging all of our patrons to raid mom’s closet (or their own) and proudly wear their Christmas sweaters to The Sandbar.
Tomorrow: Who was voted "Best Dressed" (or is it Worst Dressed?) at our party?
by Debbi | Dec 17, 2007 | Christmas
The Lawrence staff and friends gathered at The Sandbar last night for the annual Christmas party.
A fairy godmother (Peach, perhaps?) reached into the dark corners of the upstairs closet and managed to find some fabulous decorations. She transformed The Sandbar into an elegant beach bar complete with white tablecloths, candles, and flamingo and palm tree centerpieces.
All of our current staff members were there, and they brought an assortment of wives, girlfriends, roommates, moms, and friends with them. A few of our favorite customers were there, too. And of course a couple of random customers- we didn’t see the need to actually close the bar for the evening since there isn’t usually much business on Sunday night anyway. So when a trio of patrons arrived, we welcomed them into our party.
We had pizza from Wheat State and a big spread of other goodies: cheese and crackers, cheese balls, meatballs (made by Dave), and spicy cheese dip (also made by Dave). We like cheese, if you couldn’t tell.
It was a fun night. So fun, in fact, that there are too many stories for one post and I’m going to milk it all I can. Each day this week I’ll share something new about the party. The unique attire worn by the party-goers; the amazingly obnoxious gifts that were exchanged; and the drinking games that commenced later in the evening. We might even have a new poll in case you are tired of the one that’s up right now. (By the way, if you haven’t voted yet, please do so).
I have 190+ pictures to download and sort through and edit, so be patient. I’ll pick the best ones and add them to the Christmas party photo album as soon as I can.
Oh! And the best part about last night- the staff got to see the brand new Hurricane video for the very first time. Only Dave and I had seen the video before we showed it off last night. It was awesome to see every one laughing so hard, and crying in some cases. After the grand premiere in a few weeks, I’ll post the video here for the rest of the world to see.
Don’t forget to check in all week to see all the antics from our party!
Tomorrow: Fun and Festive Clothing!
by Debbi | Dec 12, 2007 | Christmas, Random Questions
Every year, we have a party. Well, we actually have lots of parties throughout the year, but the Christmas/holiday/whatever PC term you want to call it is a highlight. Actually, I like this new all-inclusive holiday name. Read about last year’s party here.
We eat, drink, and fight over gifts. Over the years, there have been some truly interesting gifts show up at this party. As you might expect, the females in the group typically bring nice gifts. Bath stuff, home decor, wine, candles. Things the other females might like. The men on the other hand…you just never know.
Each year the gifts get more and more outrageous as the group tries to top last year’s hit gift.
We want to know what you think was the best gift. I’ve searched the dark corners of my brain to remember the silly/crazy/obnoxious/disgusting things that have made an appearance through the years, and I think I have a pretty good list.
Go ahead and vote in the poll over on the right side of the page. Let us know what was the best- and yes, we all define "best" in different ways.
1. The Helmet. I think it was Ron who brought this one? {Help me out here, Peanut Gallery.} Found on the side of the road and quickly converted into an oddly-shaped gift that garnered lots of attention, both before and after it was opened.
2. The Lottery Tickets. Sadly, none of them paid off big for whoever ended up with them. But wouldn’t it have been cool if someone at our party scratched off a big winner?
3. The Inflatable Basketball Goal. It quickly took up residence in the corner of the bar. The helmet came in handy for the game that followed.
4. A Year of Playboy. This gift might have been more financially lucrative than the lottery tickets, because Anna Nicole Smith was on the cover of at least one of them.
5. The Lawn Gnome. Heather wouldn’t part with it all night. I don’t think anyone actually wanted to steal it anyway, but we humored her by letting her think we all wanted it.
6. Tide. A shiny (new!) orange bottle of liquid detergent. No one wanted to end the gift game and take it, they wanted to keep fighting over the previously opened gifts. I finally decided that this was one of the more useful gifts in the bunch and put a stop to the madness by grabbing it.
There you have it. My nominations for Best Sandbar Gift. If you disagree, leave your nomination in the comments.
by Debbi | Dec 18, 2006 | Christmas
The Sandbar Lawrence employees (and some former employees…and some friends….and other random assorted folks) gathered at the bar last night for our annual gift exchange.
Our Christmas party has become so big with the Ottawa and Baldwin City folks that it’s hard to have a gift exchange with so many people. We tried one year and it ended up just being very confusing, because wiwth 30 people participating no one could remember who opened what gift or what they wanted to steal. And it took hours.
Last night had a good turnout of perfectly normal packages, some risque presents, and some truly hideous white elephant gifts.
For example:
the stone gorilla yard ornament that Heather wouldn’t part with (it even went to the restroom with her);
the Mizzou mug that no one would admit to bringing;
a ceramic smiling snowman cookie jar;
a jug of generic bleach, keeping with last year’s laundry gift;
a bottle of wine;
a kid’s set of Nerf shooting dart things;
the whole collection of 1994 Playboy magazines.
Nobody knows who brought most of the gifts. It’s probably best that way. It was fun to see everyone fighting over things, mainly the magazines, the liquor, and a truly obnoxious black tuxedo man-thong thing that you had to be present in order to fully appreciate.
A tradition that started last year is finding a movie that makes fun of our friend Tyler, and then Photoshopping his picture onto the cover of the DVD. This year we used "The Ringer," but it wasn’t as funny because he hadn’t seen the movie and really had no idea what the joke was. Next year we’re going to expand this game to make fun of more people besides Tyler. He’s been picked on enough, only because it’s easy.
Several of the attendees showed up in their favorite Christmas attire. They dug through mom’s attic and grandma’s closets and found the best (or worst?) holiday clothing ever. It was pretty funny. If only mom knew what her old sweaters were really being used for…
And to whomever brought the Hpnotiq gift set….thank you, thank you, thank you. It will be put to good use.
by Debbi | Dec 17, 2006 | Christmas
Every Christmas, we have a "discussion" in our house about the annual Sandbar gift exchange.
It all started because one year Dave hung a sign at the bar, announcing the gift exchange. He called it a white elephant gift exchange, but also put a dollar amount on it (no more than $10). For the next week, I fielded all sorts of calls from his employees, well the girls anyway, asking what he meant. "Is this really white elephant?" "Am I supposed to buy a gift or bring something crappy that’s laying around my house?" "What’s he talking about?"
I explained to Dave that "white elephant" traditionally means that you bring something from home as a gift- something ugly that your grandma gave you, or something you got from last year’s office party, or regifting something that you just don’t want. By putting the dollar limit on the sign, people thought that they were supposed to buy a new gift, which is not the meaning behind white elephant.
We argued about it, because he insisted that "white elephant" means the gift exchange game where the first person opens a gift, then the second person either opens a new one or steals the first one, and so on. I equally vehemently insisted that this game is NOT white elephant.
This went on for a couple years. Every year he’d tell people "white elephant, $10 limit," and again I’d take phone calls from people who didn’t know if they were supposed to buy something new or regift something old. A couple times people have been visibly embarrassed at bringing something truly "white elephant," when others brought obviously newly purchased items. We talked about it again last year, and I thought that I finally got through to Dave that he should either call it white elephant, OR put the dollar amount, but not both.
A few weeks ago, I met Dave at the bar for lunch one day and saw the darn sign hanging up again: white elephant, $10 limit. Apparently he and Danny had decided it would be funny to hang it up and wait for me to say something. They got their money’s worth. We had yet another discussion about how he needed to word the gift exchange announcement. Then they turned over the sign, and showed me the REAL announcement, which just read "gift exchange, $10 limit."
Funny, guys, real funny.
I have to admit, however, that we were both right in a way. After checking Wikipedia, the online answer for everything, I found that the gift exchange game of stealing another person’s present actually is referred to as "white elephant," which I had never heard. However, other websites that I found also stated that "white elephant" gifts are generally gag gifts or items you have lying around the house. The stealing-of-the-gifts game is also called "Yankee Swap" or "Chinese gift exchange" or "Dirty Santa."
So I guess I have to admit that Dave wasn’t entirely wrong. But only when he admits that I wasn’t wrong either. And hey, I walked off with a jug of Tide last year which made me perfectly happy.
