News

Families join employee care partners for ‘old-
fashioned Christmas party' hilarity

December 19th, 2018

When Points West Living Slave Lake General Manager Marilyn Badduik started planning the annual ‘staff Christmas party’, she wanted to make it something fun and family focussed; an “old-fashioned Christmas party.” And to Marilyn, who hails from Newfoundland, that means great food, gifts, and games with friendly rivalries and non-stop laughter.

We had Outlaws, Outsiders...

The evening’s activities started with Christmas carols and a surprise visit from Santa, and then everyone sat down to a dinner of Chinese food prepared by the food services team. During dinner, Marilyn announced that everyone who wanted to play the planned games had to create a team of four, including at least one child. One team was made up of four teens. “Each team chose its own name,” says Marilyn, “and for rest of night had to go by that name. We had Outlaws, Outsiders, Rays of Sunshine, Northern Stars, Tickle Me, and more.

And then the games began

The games were from Marilyn’s family reunions over the years; ‘Put the Nail in the Bottle’ involved tying a cord around one’s waist with a nail suspended from the cord at the back, and lowering it into the bottle; ‘Tissue-box ping pong’ involved tying a box of ten ping pong balls to one’s behind and shaking the box to get the balls out; ‘spoon agility’ involved picking up ball candies with a mouth-held spoon and getting five into a jar; Egg and spoon races; Add to all of that a ‘Chinese gift exchange’ and karaoke, and there was not a dull moment.

Because all of the games were team events, Marilyn kept close track of all the winners – “until we got down to four teams and then of course we had prizes for everybody!”

Such fun watching us be silly

“The kids had such fun just watching us be silly,” says Marilyn. “We had so many laughs. I have never myself been to a staff Christmas party where people laughed so much!”

“It was a real community event,” she adds. “We had Homecare case managers, the pharmacist who visits every week; every care partner regardless of what they do. Eden was so alive in this building – people just being together and enjoying each other’s company.”

Photo: GM Marilyn Badduik helps keep the kids entertained as they wait expectantly for the arrival of Santa at the PWL Slave Lake employee care partner Christmas party on December 14.

More great photos at Flickr: Families join employee care partners for hilarious ‘old-fashioned Christmas party’