Do You Like My Hat?

On Saturday night, the library held their Christmas Staff Appreciation and Awards Dinner. It was held at our local country club and the menu featured Roast Top Sirloin, Lemon Caper Whitefish, Honey Harvest Chicken, Glazed Carrots, Green Bean Almondine, Roasted Red Baby Potatoes, Tossed Garden Salad, Rolls and Butter, assorted pies, and beverages. It was a delicious meal and a fun time.

Each person attending the event was given a goodie bag with the following items: a travel coffee mug, a pocket flashlight, an Angel Christmas ornament, a small box of Whitman's chocolates, a bag of Pence's Famous Caramel corn (a local product), and a blue glass embossed ornament. The Pence's Famous Caramel corn is (was) the empty bag to the back---my younger son ate that as soon as I got home. HA HA!
The blue glass ornament has the outline of the library building embossed on the front along with the words "Blessings of Knowledge" and "Williams County Public Library." It doesn't show up very well in this photo, but I tried.
Since I just started working at the library at the end of July of this year, I wasn't expecting any awards to come my way, but I was surprised. My name was called, along with several others, as one being recognized as a new employee. Each of us newbies was given a really nice book bag as you can see here.
Inside the bag was a mug, a clock, and a pen---all with the library name and logo on them. (I think they gave us a clock so we wouldn't have any excuses for coming in late.)
Also inside the bag was this hat.

Each employee was also given a wrapped gift from the library. We each picked a card from a deck of playing cards before the dinner began. Cards were then drawn from another deck and called out to the crowd after dinner. Whoever had the card called out was given the next gift drawn from the large pile on the table. There was a wide assortment of gifts. Some of just a few of the gifts that were passed out included large boxes of candy, gift boxes of coffee, cookie jars, hot chocolate gift boxes and many more. The gift I drew was a ladies' manicure/makeup tools set. The board of trustees handed out the gifts and with each one thanked us personally for working at the library.
After the dinner and awards, a basket auction was held to benefit our local United Way.

I enjoyed the evening out. It felt nice to be appreciated by our employers.