Last night was hubby’s Christmas party for work. We had it at Austin’s Restaurant in Metairie. The food was spectacular. It was a 5 course meal with: fried eggplant in marinara sauce, duck and sausage gumbo (I passed on this), a lovely salad, trout almondine (fantabulous) or steak and bread pudding. After dinner, we got down and dirty playing “Dirty Santa” with a twist. The rules were printed out for all to see and some people got pieces of paper that said, “you must steal #4’s gift, you have to keep it” etc… and the last rule said “no whining.” We went first and got a “zester,” which by now you all know is useless to this undomestic diva with a cooking disability. Nobody took it from us, but as far as “zesters” go, it is a nice one (lol). I personally love a “true” white elephant, where you must bring something from your house and ornament exchanges are fun too.

Since many of you will be going to these, I thought I’d give you a list of some of the gifts there last night within the $15-$20 price range and gag gifts were allowed:
Christmas movies (I gave Elf & A Christmas Story), Alcohol sets like Amaretto or Gray Goose with shot glasses, a bottle of wine and a chocolate bar, a mini cooler with a leg of lamb in it, coffee and a travel mug from Starbucks, Gift Certificate from Victoria Secret, stupid slippers (gags), Christmas CD, home decorating items, stupid home decorating items (gags). I can’t think of any more at the moment (not enough coffee yet), but that list should get you started if you need to go buy a gift for one. Oh ya, and the waiters got to pick who they thought got the worst prizes and we won and ended up with a $20 gift certificate to Subway.