Christmas Party and an Unexpected Gift

We had our annual Christmas Party last night. It was quite a scene to behold. There had to have been more than 70 people squished into our not-so-huge home. It was a lot of fun and we had been preparing for days! The house looked amazing! Mom had it all decked out in lights, beautifully lit candles and decorations galore. We also made basically every type of party h'dourves, cookie, christmas candy, and truffle you could possibly imagine. The selection was beyond belief and was very pretty and decorative as well. It was a success!

We ALL (as in all 50-70 of us) went caroling through our neighborhood last night (something we are attempting to make tradition as this was our second year to do so). Our neighbors thoroughly enjoy it, well the majority of them at least. We were rejected by a few, sadly. Where is the Christmas spirit people?!

Sidenote: If you line your home in lights and have a light up frosty and reindeer in your front yard then you are simply ushering carolers to your door, so it isn't very nice to slam the door in our sweet faces because you, my friend gave a false impression. Thank you and Merry Christmas anyway.

The majority of attendees I didn't really know all too well and it was kind of funny to feel like a stranger in my own house but really cool to meet new people!

We also played the infamous white elephant/dirty santa game. You know, the one where you steal presents from people. It got a bit hasty at one point. I simply observed the hysteria of people actually fighting over sparklers and lotto tickets. Too funny.

Much, much later in the night a few of us adjourned to the couches all comfy and snuggly and watched Enchanted. It's obviously not a Christmas movie but it was amazing. I laughed so hard. If you haven't seen it, you must! I got a kick out of it. Really. Then again, it may have been because it was 12:00 am and I was watching it with extremely hilarious people, so I'm sure that contributed much to my enjoyment.

All in all, it was a lovely night, spent with lovely people.

I am beyond exhaustion today, though. I think it was 2:45 am when I actually fell asleep only to be woken up by the sound of my screaming alarm clock just 3 short hours later. I'm halfway through the day and I haven't collapsed...yet. I don't do well when I havn't had at least 6 hours of sleep. I'm awake but my brain is not functioning properly.

On another note, today a little unexpected surprise arrived for me at the office. A policyholder came in to thank me for my assistance on a claim that she had made. She stated that she was so pleased with our service and willingness to drop all that we were doing to assist her. She gave both Amy and I a card. Upon opening it up, two 5 dollar bills fell out. (We're actually not supposed to take money from customers, ever. However, she had already left when I opened ot and we can't very well send it back. So, I suppose it can slide this once.) She wrote the sweetest note within a Christmas card and one line read...

"I wanted to thank you for being so kind and helpful last Friday. Some people would say it was your job, you dropped everything you were doing to help me. I say it was the sweet spirit within you."

That, my friends is why I love my job. I know I may complain about someone cussing me out over the phone or in person because they got a rate increase (obviously out of my control), their billing got screwed up somehow or their insurance was cancelled because they failed to pay their premium, have had too many accidents and/or tickets or whatever other reason you can imagine. However, for every ten of those mean people there is one like this dear lady who totally and completely made my year and made it all worth it. It's amazing to feel appreciated.

To those of you who didn't catch my previous post, you just might have been tagged in it! :) If not, then feel free to do it anyway!

Much love!