Office Holiday Party: Official Highlights
It's officially 2019 and everyone has (mostly) recovered from the hustle and bustle of December season. In addition to a wide selection of craft beers, the Designhammer year-end holiday party tradition consists of staff families enjoying a large Chinese takeaway food banquet (this year from Gourmet Kingdom in Carborro, everyone's favorite gift-giving (and stealing) game White Elephant, and to no one's surprise, the developers tend to finish their holiday celebration off with a video game showdown and office nerf-gun battle.
Jay Smashes Smash
Pictured: Jay annihilating everyone in a heated game of Super Smash Bros Ultimate on his Nintendo Switch
Frank also managed to accomplish his yearly holiday party goal (now 7 years running) of winning another Lego set in White Elephant, which will remain unopened on his desk for the foreseeable future (No...we really don't get it either).
Pictured: Frank's bizarre Lego collection
While We Were Out: Staff Recaps
From the end of December through the first of January, provided no development-related emergencies arise, almost everyone at DesignHammer takes time off to go home and spend quality time with their friends and family. The holiday season tends to slow things down, especially in the B2B world, so we all like to take advantage of some much deserved R&R. Thankfully no client fires emerged while we were out! My personal holiday break was a special one, as my (foreign) fiancé and I finally had the opportunity to celebrate our very first Christmas in America (pictured).
Every day following Christmas involved taking care of a variety of tasks, including consistent wedding prep work (cake tasting, table settings, prop rentals–the fun stuff), and some not-so-fun-stuff like cleaning out our entire garage, which up until then had been used as an extra storage space for the past four months. On New Year's Eve, Jeroen and I made a last-minute decision to drive to Greensboro to see Bassnectar's NYE 360°, complete with a circular, rotating stage, and 28,000 other fans who successfully packed the entire Greensboro Coliseum (also pictured)!
Southern Cooking
Boardgame Break
We decided on a holiday break staycation and were able to break in several board games: Escape the Dark Castle, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Race to Adventure, Private Die, Sagrada, and Azul.
Minton Family Adventures
My wife and I took the kids for a short, low-stress trip to Wilmington, NC. It’s an easy drive from Durham, with plenty of fun for the whole family in a compact city, so we wind up going once or twice a year. The kids love warships, so Battleship North Carolina is always at the top of the itinerary. We also dined at some of our favorite local restaurants, including The Fork and Cork for a break from the boring burgers the kids seem to only want to eat, and Circa 1922 for sophisticated small plates and tapas even the kids enjoy. Despite the forecast, the weather turned out amazing for a late December trip, with only one day of rain, and “balmy” sixties temperatures. Warm enough for a trip for ice cream at Kilwins.
Battleship North Carolina Museum (pictured): Little one poses in front of one of USS North Carolina’s ten twin 5-inch/38 caliber Mark 12 dual-purpose secondary gun mounts.
At Kilwins (pictured): The kids enjoy a scoop of Superman ice cream. It seems to be a Michigan thing I don’t understand, but the kids love it.
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