Esri Canada Christmas Party

Tonight, for the first time in three years, Esri Canada Prairies Region had a Christmas party where they flew in everyone from all of the offices to Calgary. It was tonight, from six to tenish, at Wine-Ohs downtown. It was appies and drinks, and then a buffet dinner at 8:00. There was a live band, the T. Buckley Trio, and there was some space for dancing. We had a great time. As I said to Tammy on the way home, I enjoyed our private Christmas Party last year, but I missed being a part of the office festivities. The year before that was the party at Jim’s house.

There was a good turnout, with only three people (and spouses) who couldn’t make it from across the region. There were three from Winnipeg, André from Regina, three from Edmonton and the rest were from Calgary. There were door prizes (we didn’t win any, the brewery tour sounded like fun). We mixed and mingled. Before and after the dinner was mostly spent with Steven and Krisztina (Steven being the “one on the left” in the Movember picture), and dinner we were sitting with Debbie and Bart, and Mary and John.

There was an observance in memory of Tim Walker, who was the Regional Manager out of Edmonton who passed away this February. A lot of the people working at Esri Canada had worked with him for years before that, so it was particularly hard for them.

Tammy experimented with a few drinks, which I will let her discuss in the comments, because I don’t remember exactly what they were. One was black currant and gin, I remember that. And something with a ginger liqueur in it. I stuck to Magner’s Cider for the most part, but when Steven got a Black Adder, I had to give it a try.

We took the train to and from the event, which worked well as usual. Neither of us got overly drunk, but it eliminated the need to drive or negotiate a taxi. Miranda got a night of babysitting money, so she was happy.