After the ball

Sparkle scarf for holiday fun. Jingle
bell for seasonal sounds. Wrist
band for free beverages.

On Facebook Thursday evening:

Diane: Departmental Christmas party tomorrow. What's wilder than a bunch of accountants' holiday party? Just about everything.

But I lied. Deep within our department lives a small group of creative people, the kind who make sure there is something to do at our party, other than stand around, munch on hot wings and swill free beer. Some highlights from the bash:

- Who killed Santa Claus? Santa was found dead just before a holiday party at which he was to appear. The detective in charge enlisted all of our help to uncover the Kringle-killing criminal.

- More than a dozen of our coworkers had roles in the mystery. I'm not sure which was more revealing, the roles the committee chose for each person, or the gusto with which some people got into those roles.

- The person in the department who would have been near the bottom of the list of mayhem-inducers is the one who came up with the idea of doing the mystery. Geez, I helped him with a Word formatting problem last week; the least he could have done was clued me in on the killer.

- Small trinkets were scattered over the table as favors, as is tradition at our parties. This year, the little spring loaded jumpers were jack in the boxes; alas, the shape of the box out of which they popped precluded a repeat of the "launch the jumper into the empty beer cup" game of last year.

- While I had cash on me, I left my checkbook at home. Big mistake; everything I wanted at the silent auction had values above what cash I had, and did go for more than the stated value. My favorite? An Indian colleague offered an Indian meal. After talking with her, I have a jump on next year; she plans to offer Indian cooking lessons. I'm starting to put away cash now.

- Due to my negligence in checking the bidding just before the auction closed, I managed to win...nothing. Not even one of the myriad boxes of cookies. Not to be foiled in donating, I dropped my cash with the cashier, anyway.

- One of the student singing groups came to provide some (quality) entertainment. A double octet did half a dozen numbers a cappella. How they managed to stay together and on pitch in a two-story, echoing basketball court, I don't know, but they were fantastic. The low alto - female tenor, actually - who sang lead on a jazzy version of Rudolph sent shivers up my spine. Awesome group, who obviously enjoyed making music.

- In spite of the fact they had been replaced by a motorcycle, and were in the midst of forming a union to fight their "unfair" dismissal, it was not Rudolph, the reindeer ringleader, who was the murderer. The owner of the radio station, who had seen a decrease in revenue as business owners spent more to hire Santa to read the ads and less on the actual air time buys, had poisoned Santa with some of her home made herbal concoctions. Personally, I think her motive was weak, and that she simply sniffed too much St. John's Wort.

All in all, a fun time was had. Now we need to buckle down; only two weeks until the Christmas break.