The husband and I have gotten in the habit of throwing our own company Christmas party.  Mostly because, well, neither of our companies have holiday gatherings.  I am a state employee, so no party for me.  The husband works for a private company that treats him very well, but they don’t have a Christmas party, either.  So, if we want one we have to host our own.  The nice thing about that is that we get to do exactly what we want to do and hang out only with people we like (party for two, anyone?).

I started looking at party possibilities a few weeks ago.  I was immediately drawn to Elf the Musical, playing at a Seattle theater for just a few days in early December.  Unfortunately, it was already pretty much sold out.  I will one day see that show.  For absolute certain.

Second runner up, but much higher on the classy scale, was Handel’s Messiah, performed at Benaroya Hall by the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Chorale.  We weren’t intending upon staying the night in the city, so we purchased tickets for the 1 pm show and made reservations for Wild Ginger at 4:30.

We headed to Seattle around 9:30.  After all, you never know how bad traffic is going to be.  Could take a little over an hour.  Could take two.  Good times.  Luckily, it took just a little over an hour (whoo-hoo)!  We paid to park at the underground garage at Benaroya, then wandered the city streets for a while.  Actually, I had a $30 coupon for Columbia burning a hole in my pocket (got myself a $60 hooded fleece for half price!), so we went there first.  Afterwards, we wandered down to Pike’s Place…always so festive this time of year.

The winter line at Piroshky Piroshky is manageable (vs the summer line, which we will not stand in), so we bought ourselves a little snack and wandered down to Ellenos yogurt where we bought ourselves another little snack (eggnog Greek yogurt, anyone?).  Soon, it was time to head to the show.

I’ve never seen a full, professional symphony orchestra before.  It was beautiful.  I loved the orchestra and the chorus together.  The soloists (barotone, soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor) had beautiful voices, but…not really my thing.  I think part of the problem is that all I know about opera I learned from Bugs Bunny.  So, when an opera singer starts doing a whole lot of fancy warbling I find myself tempted to snicker, imagining either Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd.

At intermission we enjoyed a glass of wine, each other’s company and the beautiful lobby of Benaroya Hall.  Soon, the show was over.  We had some time before dinner, so again wandered the streets.  We took in the gingerbread village at City Centre, smiled at the Santas cramming the bars (it was Santa Con in Seattle…a delightful annual event for those of us who are suckers for Santa), then headed for Wild Ginger.

Over a leisurely meal we talked, we laughed, we compared notes about the symphony (both of us experienced Bugs Bunny moments), we laughed.  After dinner we walked down the street so I could take a couple of photos of the candy cane striped Great Wheel, then decided to call it a day.

Another successful company Christmas party!  And, as always, some beautiful holiday sites in the city.