We haven’t seen snow yet this winter, so after five years in Minnesota it hasn’t quite felt like Christmas here – but that changed this week after two Christmas parties with our coworkers.
I recently starting volunteering part-time at the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at the University and we had our Christmas party on Monday. We went ice skating at a nearby park and had champagne and snacks at a restaurant afterwards. It was a fun way to get to know the others that work in the office, especially since all work on different days. It was a bit warm for skating – 55 degrees F! – so there was about half an inch of water on top of the rink. Needless to say, if you fell you got pretty wet! The rink was in the middle of a Christmas carnival. I wasn’t able to check out any of the other rides or games, but I think we might go back later this month to see what’s there.
On Thursday, we went to Matt’s office Christmas party. His group has about 80 members, including students, postdocs, faculty, and staff, and many of them, along with their partners, attended the dinner too. At the start of dinner, everyone opened a Christmas Cracker. These are really popular in the UK and are essentially a small gift wrapped in a paper tube. Each cracker contained a paper crown and a small prize – so you’ll see a lot of people wearing the crowns in our photos. We then had a three course meal and spent the evening socialising with Matt’s coworkers and their partners. It was fun to get together and see everyone dressed up!
We’ll still have to get used to not having much snow anymore, but we certainly had fun this week getting ready for our first British Christmas!
Welcome | Explore 