With Thanksgiving in the rear view mirror, there is one gathering I look forward to every year to get me in the holiday mood - the annual wine party. For over 25 years, friends of ours have hosted a wine party after Thanksgiving. We didn't know them when they first started but we do now and we've be partaking in tradition the last few years.

It goes like this: the hosts purchase the wine and the guests bring the appetizers. We introduce the wines, taste the wines, eat food that pairs (mostly) with the wine, talk with each other, talk about the wine - and repeat.

It's great.

Wanting a reason to get together more often, we've expanded to include beer-tasting and a martini party. Now, we're tossing around the idea of Bloody Marys in the late winter/early spring and rum/vodka based drinks on the river in summer.

So, a finance, engineering, logistics and HR walk into a wine party. Finance calculates cost per bottle of a homemade wine, engineering assesses the wine-making equipment and overall process safety, logistics calculates supply and demand, and HR . . . .

What does HR do?

More important, what's your favorite adult-beverage themed party?

By: Lisa Rosendahl

I have a thing for Veterans. I am a veteran, I know Veterans, I work with Veterans and the whole mission behind the HR work I do each day is to honor America's Veterans. I even had the honor to mold, shape and build future Veterans when I taught ROTC at the University of Pennsylvania more than a few years ago.

It was during my ROTC assignment that I met Stephen Udovich. Steve was an infantry officer with more #badass in his buzz cut than the rest of our department combined. Steve is now retired and has used his #bad for #good.

Steve founded the Warrior Weekend Program. The Warrior Weekend Program provides weekends of rest and relaxation for America's Heroes who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and who are undergoing recovery at our Military Medical Centers. They focus on small groups of between 8 to 12 personnel and offer events to participate in at various destination cities. The idea behind the program is to take these heroes and their family members out of the hospital environment for a weekend.

The program depends entirely on contributions.

Warrior Weekends is sponsoring a Super Bowl Raffle with proceeds to benefit the program. Super Bowl Package includes: 2 Tickets to the Super Bowl, 3 Nights at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, $1,500 in transportation of spending money.

For More Information or to Purchase Tickets, CLICK HERE.

Tickets by Mail: Send check made to Warrior Weekend Fund ($20.00 each) with self addressed stamped envelope to address on the flyer.

Click through and take a look at the program. It's a good one.

Blog

Wine Parties: A Day in the Life Sunday

Helping Veterans: Warrior Weekend Program

Lisa Rosendahl