MAURICE!!!!!!

You may remember from here, that I have a fixation with a certain stuffed giraffe that currently lives in the TIA office. His name is Maurice and my colleague and good friend Adrienne rescued him from the Melissa & Doug booth during our show in Dallas last Fall. Since he has been in the office, I have lusted over him, telling Adrienne that one of these days, I'm going to steal him for James' nursery.

Well, it looks like robbery is not in my future. Look who was on our door step yesterday:

MAURICE!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even tell you how excited I am to have this guy in our house and part of our ever-growing family. I went nuts...seriously. Ask Ed. As soon as we took him out of the packaging I hugged him and then called Adrienne. I knew she was behind it and needed to thank her profusely. Turns out it is not the TIA office Maurice, but instead, our very own sent from the offices of Melissa & Doug.

Thank you Adrienne for making me smile bigger than I have it a while. And thank you Melissa & Doug for not only producing this adorable guy, but for sending one to James (and me). What a great industry I work for!!!

A TIA Baby Shower

I work with the greatest people on earth. And I'm not exaggerating. Not only do these people support the companies that make toys and bring joy to children, we manage to have a good time during the busiest time of the year. Not Christmas, but Toy Fair. We are officially 3 weeks out from the largest toy industry trade event in North America and these wonderful people took the time to throw me a wonderful baby shower while I was in NY last week.

Superstar Robyn was the ring leader and transformed the conference room into a regular party room complete with a baby clothesline, Maurice the giraffe (who somehow I will steal from Adrienne one of these days), baby boy "blue" sparkling cider and all kinds of other goodies. I was touched. I was even more touched to see that everyone on staff brought baby James a copy of their favorite childhood book complete with their personal anecdote.

After 2 beautiful speeches from my amazing boss, Marian and our wonderful CEO, Carter I was officially overwhelmed. I feel so lucky and blessed that I am part of such a wonderful team and could not be more grateful that they let me work for them remotely from VA. Good bless a VPN! Thank you Robyn, Marian, Carter and the entire staff for a wonderful afternoon. I appreciate all your love and support and can't wait for you all to meet baby James. :)

A Culinary Experience

Last week, while in New York, I was lucky enough to participate in the TIA holiday party. Typically, the holiday party is pretty awesome. My first year at TIA, we had a private party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. My second year we did a walking tour of Grand Central Station (awesome btw) followed by lunch at a great place that I no longer remember (Lindsay, help me out!) and last year we had a 50's-style diner lunch (again, the name of the place escapes me) followed by a matinee of Jersey Boys. Can we say AWESOME?!

Well, this year, the fabulous Holiday Party Planners (aka Robyn and Lindsay) of TIA were able to top all other years. This year, we all donned Chefs hats and went to cooking school at the Institute of Culinary Education. Yes, that's right, we got to learn how to make some amazing food from top chefs and then partake in one of the best meals I've had in a while.

Upon our arrival, we were treated to 3 delicious appetizers and some adult beverages (kid beverage for me, of course). The apps included Mini Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with "Tomato Soup" Dip, Garlic-Grilled Shrimp with Almond Romesco Sauce on Toasted Pita Rounds and (my favorite) Mini "Beef Wellingtons" with Mushrooms, Truffle and Chives. Is your mouth watering yet? Just wait. :)

After receiving our aprons and chefs hats, we headed to the kitchen where we met our Chef leads. We split up into 3 groups and started preparing our lunch. On the menu:

• Fall "Panzanella" Bread Salad with Roasted Acorn Squash, Mushrooms, Roasted Peppers, Arugula, Hazelnuts served in a Parmesan Bowl with Champagne Vinaigrette
• Strip Loin of Beef with Truffled Demi-Glace, Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives, Sauteed Haricot Verts (aka string beans)
• Baked Apple Pancake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce

Again, are you salivating? I headed over to help with the dessert where my main job was to butter the ramekins. And let me tell you, those ramekins were BUTTERED!! Everyone really got into it and seemed to have a really great time.


I also played a very central role in making the string beans...as in, I made them all on my own!! And they tasted DAMN good! :)

Once lunch was prepared, we were able to enjoy it. There is something very satisfying about eating a meal that you prepared and that tastes great. It was a truly great day and it just solidified my feelings that I work with a wonderful group of people.

P.S. Paul, our CFO, won last chef standing. He kept his Chefs hat on through the entire lunch and didn't even realize it was on until it was pointed out in a lovely toast made by my awesome boss. You can see him in the above photo. What a happy guy!!