12/2/2012 Being the new kids on the block isn’t always easy. But when we decided to move we knew we wanted to put our best foot forward and make this the best experience as possible. We knew we wanted to seize every opportunity that came our way to get involved. A little background information…Tommy works for FAME on the 26th floor. The 27th, 28th and 29th floors are occupied by another agency called Martin | Williams. They will sometimes work together on projects and they are managed by the same human resources. Every year Martin | Williams hosts a family Christmas party for the families of both agencies. We thought this would be a great opportunity to get to know other families in the same company, so Tommy RSVP’d!
Since Zoë was going to be dressed up for the party we decided to take a few Christmas pictures of her before we left…
Now off to the party we went! When we arrived we signed in. This was the first time Zoë was given a name tag. Thankfully I had worked in the nursery before and remembered to put it on her back so it would stay on! Then we checked out all of the activities. There wasn’t a line for Santa so we made that our first stop. I was really hoping to get a good picture with Santa. I had planned out her outfit for weeks and thought Zoë would do great. She typically goes to anyone and everyone without a fuss. That was something we wanted as parents and something we were very intentional about. Unfortunately Santa is very intimidating and not a stranger Zoë willingly goes to without a few tears. Exhibit A, B, C, and D.
Finally I gave up the battle and we got a some what decent family photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus.
After that torturous event Zoë was allowed to choose a toy from the shelf. I couldn’t believe the options she had, veterinarian and doctor sets, stuffed animals, and art sets. Zoë got a magna doodle! We are hoping to ignite the artist within her. I really hope she does not have my drawing incapability (my stick figures are questionable). You can always find Tommy with a sketch book in his pocket and he really wants to share them with Zoë one day. So we are going to encourage the arts with Zoë as much as possible. After we selected the toy we thought it was the perfect time to regroup and get something to eat. When we were finished we decided to go up stairs for some arts and crafts. I made Zoë a picture frame and she played with crayons (which we all know is code for she chewed on crayons). Then we made her some antlers out of pipe cleaners.
We (ok I) really wanted to get Zoë’s face painted so we kept checking to see if the line was going down…it never did! So instead we played on the chalk wall and watched the lady make balloon animals. She made Zoë a special lady bug that she could wear on her wrist. (I am proud to say that the lady bug survived a week at our house, with baby and dogs. Then Dada kindly deflated her). 
When we were done with the chalk we went back upstairs to decorate some cookies! They had the yummiest sugar cookies! In different conference areas they had Christmas movies playing. Upstairs they had the grinch and in the face paining room they had classic Christmas movies (Rudolph, Frosty, etc.). We had a lot of fun decorating cookies with the children and parents. One kid was glued to the movie, he didn’t even care about the cookies! Zoë got her first taste of frosting, but that turned out really messy (go figure) so we ended up just giving her a sugar cookie that also turned out to be really messy, but easy to clean up.
When we finished our cookies people were beginning to leave and head out for the Holidazzle parade. We quickly snapped a few more pictures around the office. 
I was so glad to have gotten the opportunity to meet some of Tommy’s co-workers. They were all very sweet and welcoming. It was a fun night had by all!
And now a note from Zoë…
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boy that santa was scary
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It is well with my Soul 