the christmas party

I have a couple of pictures of my co-workers from the day hospital (my original rotation, before the stroke unit), from the Christmas dinner we had on Friday night. We went to a Greek restaurant, where the food was excellent, the restaurant was jam-packed with long tables full of very drunk people from various offices, schools, and in our case, the hospital, and the entertainment was a belly dancer, a traditional Greek male dancer balancing towers of glasses on his head, and cheesy good-time music from a DJ. Christmas dinners/parties/balls are a huge deal over here, everyone has them, and everyone "lets down their hair" big time, no matter what part of the hierarchy their job title places them in. It really is a British thing...I was thinking today about how we always invited our rehab director and manager at the hospital in NJ to the happy hours and BBQs, etc that we had, but they always politely declined. And additionally, while I can happily remember some all-out holiday bashes my father's company used to sponsor back in the day when I was little, including magicians, bands, and someone dressing up as Santa, Christmas parties don't happen like that any more in the States (except for maybe the big money law firms). So this year I am happily taking advantage of the myriad Christmas do's that are such a cultural phenomenon over here...great fun!! Oh, and the pics- well, I'll post them when Blogger stops acting up and lets me.