Tag: partyplanningcomittee

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

An Office Thanksgiving

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom. The big topic at hand this week is the impending holiday this next week, Thanksgiving Day! While it may not have the same level of decor and festivities as Christmas or Halloween, many offices still see this holiday come up in a myriad of ways. I am here to help navigate through the often murky etiquette and protocols that go into them.

Food Drive
Perhaps one of my favorite events that some offices do is holding a food drive, with those items then being donated to a local shelter. The question comes down to what to donate, as some people have issues with this topic. Some of you may be aware that Dunder Mifflin once tried to host one, and that clip can be found here. The main issue they came across was the donated some pretty terrible items including a dented can of water chestnuts, expired beans, racket balls, and something called “brown.” Darryl and Toby were so appalled they decided to force everyone to eat these disgusting contributions. The goal of a food drive is to provide food for those in need, not for you to clear your pantries of old and disgusting food.

So what should you donate? The best recommendation is simply go to the website of the shelter you wish to donate to (or call them) and they will typically have a list of things that can be donated as well as things they are in need of. Non-perishable is key so typically items that are canned but they will sometimes accepted things that are bagged and boxed. According to Feeding America1, their most common items are:
Peanut butter
Canned soup
Canned fruit
Canned vegetables
Canned stew
Canned fish
Canned beans
Pasta (most prefer whole grain)
Rice (most prefer brown rice)

Again, it does not hurt to specifically check with the organization you are donating to. But there are other ways you can give back. Besides physical items, most organizations will accept money donations so you can organization a fundraiser and donate the proceeds. You can also look into local shelters, churches, and similar organizations that might be hosting Thanksgiving meals for those in need and could use food donations to serve as well as volunteers to assist with the event. It is worth mentioning that we should be striving to give back more than once a year so perhaps this holiday event will urge your office to do this throughout the year.

Holiday Potluck
After a food drive or fundraiser, the other common occurrence is you might do an office potluck and if you are new to these, it is smart to be prepared. It is worth mentioning that these tips can certainly help with even a friends and family potluck-style event.

The key to a successful potluck is the organization of the event. The date and time needs to be made clear so everyone can coordinate around and if it changes, make that known to everyone. Next is the potluck menu which should involve a shared document that people can sign up with what their dish is going to be. This is done so people know what is already being brought and reduces the likelihood you end up with three potato salads, five pies, and several trays of deviled eggs. Some might have a rule that you must bring something to take part in the event but none of the ones I have been to have had that. Not everyone might have the time and resources to contribute and many people are like myself who tend to bring more than enough. I will mention that one rule people should stick to is if you put yourself down for something, you should stick to it. I have seen people who say they will bring on thing but change their mind and end up bringing something that someone else did and it throws of the menu. And please know that it is perfectly okay to buy something instead of cooking if you are not much of a chef. Cookies, salads, beverages, frozen appetizers; these are all great and no one will judge you for not cooking.

A few things to keep in mind, however. If you have a dish that needs to be frozen/refrigerated or kept warm, take that into consideration. Do some recon ahead of time to ensure there is a place that you can store your cold food and you will like need a crockpot if you are doing a hot meal. Another important one is I feel it is good to talk about dietary restrictions, especially allergens. I know people who cannot eat gluten and despite knowing the people for over a decade, no one bothers to try to cater to such allergens. Another big one might be someone who doesn’t eat meat, it is not hard to help cater to such restrictions to ensure everyone can enjoy a proper meal. I cook a meal every week that is gluten free and no meat for people so I can assure you, it is not that difficult.

So you are taking part in a potluck meal and want to whip something up but you have no idea what you an do, I am here with some good recommendations. I am including some recipes for the foods, some I have tried and some I have not, these are meant to give you a starting point.

Barbecue Meatballs
I have done these for a number of events because they are easy to make ahead of time and then just store in a crockpot. They also make create leftovers and can be eaten at any meal, I have even done them for a brunch. Basically you take your favorite meatballs and then get them into your favorite barbecue sauce, easy! My tips include using saltine crackers instead of breadcrumbs in your meatballs, and then I use Sweet Ray’s barbecue sauce but I like to spice it up with some cayenne pepper. I very much appreciate the sweet and spicy combination.

Sweet Potato Chili
Have not done this but it sounds great. Sweet potatoes of any form are a staple at Thanksgiving and by turning them into a chili we have a fun and tasty vegetarian option. Don’t forget to grab some toppings to go along with it!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
My preferred method of sweet potatoes is mashed. Here is a nice starting recipe, but I will be honest that I throw mine all together. Additionally, I make mine extra sweeet with brown sugar, cinnamon, and topped with marshmallows. Needless to say it’s my husband’s favorite side at the holiday.

Charcuterie Board
Sometimes rather than cooking you an just organize! We all know plenty of people who load up on the pre-dinner snacks so while not get out a board of cheeses, meats, crackers, and vegetables for those snackers.

Pumpkin Pie
You can never go wrong with pie and pumpkin pie is one of the easiest to whip up and can be made a couple days in advance. Here is a standard recipe but almost any can of pumpkin puree will have a recipe as well so no worries. Tip: it is no big deal if you use a store-bought crust. Pie crust is notoriously tricky (no matter what Martha Stewart says) so if you use a crust from the store, you are fine. I recently found gluten-free version that I will be using and because of it, I feel more keen on making my pies extra pretty since the crust is already done.

Stuffing/Dressing
Along with mashed potatoes and gravy, the dressing is my favorite part of a turkey dinner. The difference between stuffing and dressing is stuffing has been inside the bird and dressing is made on its own in a dish. Dressing is the way to go, allows the bird to fully cook and it develops a slight crisp. Use your favorite recipe (this link is close to mine) but the key is that you want to let your bread to sit out a couple days so it gets very dry to soak up the flavors. And it has to be warm so I will say if you cannot use a crockpot or something to get it hot for serving, you can skip it. And I will go to the mat on this one, boxed items like Stouffer’s stuffing are terrible and you should stay away from them. Same goes for instant potatoes, they are not worth it so stay away!

And this, my friends and colleagues, are my hot tips for Thanksgiving in the office this year! I will say that I love being able to talk about food, cooking, and I would say I love talking about planning an event but it is more deciding what it will be. I never feel more seen than watching Angela having to deal with the people assigned to help her in the Party Planning Committee.

Have more tips, please share with us and our readers! Have questions or maybe need some Party Planning or cooking advice, let me know! Email me, message me on Facebook or Instagram or simply comment away and I will be all too happy to help you however I can!

I wish you all good luck this Thanksgiving and as always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

  1. Morello, P. (2020, January 14). What to donate to a food bank and what to avoid. Feeding America. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/what-donate-food-bank-and-what-avoid ↩︎
Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 17 “Lecture Circuit Part 2”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! This week we are unfortunately falling into the traditional summer pattern where the work days drag on yet the season seems to be passing by. I hope you all were able to enjoy your holiday weekend this last week whether it was grilling, spending time with family, or what have you. As I had mentioned we decided to run off to see Jurassic World: Rebirth which I am going to highly recommend as the dinosaur film of the year. Between all of the fun dinosaur scenes and Jonathan Bailey in his “slutty little glasses” I think there is something for everyone. And I’ve been rocking the new Jurassic Park hat and t-shirt since then to show my appreciation for the franchise. Afterwards we hosted a barbecue and mini bonfire so all-in-all it was a great time. We did skip the fireworks as our dogs do not like them, and honestly they’re nothing super important so I’d rather relaxing after a busy day anyways. The rest of the weekend was brought to us by Costco as during our weekend trip we decided to go through all of the summer products and we decided to get this badminton set that sets up fast, plus a pool for the dogs. I think we had more fun than they did and we finally got our summer sunburn. Nothing of note this week aside from my husband heading out for the weekend back down to Kansas City for his final requirement before he can begin teaching as a Lanza educator. And I’m going force myself to be productive and work on a couple of projects I have going on. So that is my recap, I’d love to hear from my reader(s) of anything fun you did over the holiday weekend when you were not in the office!

And while you think back, let us jump into the continuation of what has been going on in the office. Where we left everyone, Michael and Pam were out on a lecture circuit visiting the other branches while Jim and Dwight were attempting to throw Kelly her (belated) office birthday.

After Pam had a cathartic moment visiting Karen, Michael realized that perhaps this was why he is still so upset over Holly. They left so much out in the open that they need to have some sort of conclusion to that moment in their lives. So they decide to head up to the Nashua branch and include them in their lecture circuit and Michael and get some face time with Holly. Unfortunately, this does not go as expected when they arrive only to discover that she is out of town on a retreat and is unavailable. Not only that, they discover she already had a boyfriend who works in the sales department, AJ. I find it very interesting that after being transferred for dating someone in the office, she is already dating someone again. Yes, AJ is not management like Michael was but it is very odd that she continues to date people she works with. Are we sure that perhaps the reason she had to leave her last job wasn’t because she ended up dating too many coworkers? Guess we will never know, but probably. Pam was still able to talk Michael into putting on the lecture to save face, and maybe be a special story everyone will talk about when Holly returns. And it was sort of working, unlike the other branches Nashua seemed genuinely excited and interested in his performance. Until Michael began to spiral by fixating on AJ, Holly, and just the fact that they are no longer together. Pam attempts to take over the presentation to salvage a bit of self respect but Pam by no means has the same level of showmanship that Michael brought to the lecture.

While Pam was doing this, Michael strolled to the back of the office and was able to find Holly’s desk. In his weird headspace, he decided to cut a sleeve from her sweater to remember her by. I’m just going to say, he could have just taken the whole sweater because losing a sweater is much more plausible than misplacing a full sleeve. That wasn’t even the worse part, though, as Michael noticed Holly’s computer was still on and he copied a document titled “Dear Michael.” Holly is gone for a few days and she just left her computer unlocked? Being in human resources, she will have certain access on her computer that other people do not have and in companies like mine you could get in trouble for leaving a computer unlocked like that. Michael did recognize how inappropriate this was because he admitted it to Pam, seemingly hoping for permission to be able to read it. Pam was adamant about it being a breach of trust and that he could not read it, but she certainly could since she wasn’t in love with Holly. Pam wouldn’t reveal the exact details, but she seemed very confident that Holly was not over Michael and there may still have been a chance. Not exactly a perfect ending to their story, but perhaps it gave Michael a bit of hope in the sense that Holly still wasn’t over him.

Back at the office, you will recall that after everyone forgot Kelly’s birthday (aside from Phyllis who still chose not to say anything) Jim and Dwight need to make up for it with a special party. Despite being such creative individuals with so much passion for things, they are potentially the worst party planners I’ve ever seen. Dwight was doing research to verify Kelly’s age and discovered that she was in juvenile detention when she was a teenager and decides to harass her about it. Turns out she stole a boat that she thought belonged to her boyfriend at the time. Pretty serious but she was just a teen back then and really has no bearing on her current life. Jim tries to make her forget about this by showing off the ice cream cake he got from the store. I do not know why the store sold this, but it was literally just a blank sheet cake with no color, toys, or decorations. It did not represent the theme of the party because Jim and Dwight did not pick a theme. There should always be a theme to a party, and it doesn’t even need to be that complicated. My barbecue last week? It was a 4th of July party with barbecue, drinks, and I made a white chocolate cheese cake and homemade compotes of raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries to be the red, white, and blue. They literally could have made the theme “birthday” and get some flashy colors on the cake of balloons and fireworks and that would have covered it. I am not saying that throwing parties are always easy, but I am saying that there is a difference between putting in little effort compared to Jim and Dwight’s putting in no effort.

But they cannot comprehend how simple a theme can be and start breaking down what they would want to see in a party. Dwight doesn’t celebrate parties in his family so he pitches ideas like “horse hunt” because he doesn’t see the appeal. I loved Jim’s favorite birthday memory when his father took him to the Natural History Museum in New York and then bought him a triceratops toy which was always one of my favorite dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Kelly doesn’t seem like the type who would be wowed by a dinosaur party as much as I would be. In a surprise twist, they are ultimately able to put together an idea for Kelly. Using a rectangular piece of gum on her cake, it represents either a pillow to take a nap for an hour, or a television to watch for an hour at work. After some debate, she settles on taking a nap (I pry would’ve taken television). Not my idea of an office party but Kelly seemed to love it so they did succeed at this endeavor.

There was still one big event at the office which would explain why Angela wasn’t passing off judgement on Jim and Dwight, and that was Angela got a new cat! She decided to get a new cat related to the cat from Meet the Parents and is a third generation show cat named Princess Lady; all for the small price of $7,000. Where did she get this? She decided to sell Andy’s engagement ring because “he wouldn’t have wanted it returned.” There seems to be some debate online over what would normally be done in the situation. You would think that the ring should go back to Andy since the wedding didn’t occur, but there are those who see the ring as a gift and should belong to Angela. When it comes to engagement rings, particularly valuable ones, I have my own personal opinion on how it should be worked out. I believe the fate of the ring should come down to the circumstances of the breakup. Typically, whomever is the one who chooses to call off the wedding should give up ownership of the ring. However, if the person calling off the wedding is doing so not because they have changed their mind but because the other person committed a betrayal serious enough for a breakup, they should be entitled to it as compensation. To walk through their scenario, Andy was the one who formally broke up with Angela so he called off the wedding. But he did this because Angela was cheating on him and because she betrayed their relationship, I believe she ring should have been retuned to Andy because she betrayed what the engagement ring represented. Do you all agree with me or do you have a different opinion? I would love to hear from a lawyer on if there is some sort of precedent when it comes to the fate of a valuable engagement ring after a broken engagement.

Semantics aside, Angela is thrilled to have a new cat at home, and is devastated that she has used all her personal time and that “pet maternity” is not currently a thing. I did look it up, and there is a trend of “Pawternity” where the company allows employees time to take off for a pet. Glancing at the examples provided, they were predominately pet-related companies like veterinary companies or pet insurance. I would love to see this as the wave of the future; I may never have human children but I’ll certainly have fur babies needing my attention. Unable to take time off, Angela has resorted to the use of a pet cam so she could watch them all day. That sounds cute but obviously the purpose is to watch for ay problems, and that is what happened. While Princess Lady is a sweet feline, some of her other cats couldn’t resist the chance to climb all over her. This prompted Angela to rush home to get them sorted out and in their respective corners. Unfortunately, she forgot to turn off the camera so she didn’t realize that a few of us were able to see her on camera taking care of her cats. This wouldn’t be weird, except she was actually licking Princess Lady to clean her. Evidently this is a thing, but it is usually done with young kittens who do not have a mom to take care of them. They even have fake tongues to use so people do not need to lick them directly, but it is meant to help show them affection. If Princess Lady was a young kitten it might not be as weird, but it makes me question how much licking is actually going on. None of us said anything but she better watch herself in the future to not get on our bad side.

And that, everyone, was the conclusion to this Breakdown! Michael didn’t really get his ideal conclusion with Holly, but he is walking away with a sense of hope. Jim and Dwight were somehow able to pull off the party, but I still agree they are two of the last people who should ever be in charge of planning a party. And Angela has a brand new cat at home, which I always adore a happy ending involving pets. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and can get away from work, not thinking about your job, and just enjoy the summer vibes. Until next time, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

The Office Lecture Circuit
Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 16 “Lecture Circuit Part 1”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I don’t know about you all but I really am glad this week is coming to close. Every so often you have those days or even a full week where work is just not cutting it and you just are sort of miserable with it and that was unfortunately this week. We had a couple chilly days in comparison to what it has been so perhaps that was part of it. This has also been a week of dealing with pretty ridiculous employees so I cannot tell you how low my patience has been. Not wanting to dwell on that too much, as I am adamantly opposed to people stressing over work when they are off the clock, let us get right into the Breakdown!

A bit of good news for the office, Michael Scott is currently out of the office out on a lecture circuit! Scranton continues to have the highest sales in the company and corporate is desperate to try to spread those numbers along to the rest of the branches. So Michael has been asked to go to the branches (except Nashua, where Holly is at) to teach everyone his secret recipe to making it all work. And he is not alone out there as he recruited Pam to be his assistant, by offering her time and a half pay for 24 hours a day for three days. I think she agrees it is worth it to be his chauffer and be in charge of hauling around his many props. This does also mean that Pam will need to come face-to-face with Karen at the Utica branch where she is still the manager at. That happened to have been the branch they were at most recently and she had to face her fears in an attempt to bury the past with her.

Most of the other managers have likely not spent as much time with Michael as Karen has so she was pretty quick to shoot down some of interesting methods. He begins his lecture with pretending to have received a phone call letting him know that his father was dead, so he pretends to be upset over the news. He then has Pam throw out some mini Mounds bars to the audience; all of this is to sell an experience. I will agree with that statement because if you are attempting to sell a product or service, you need to be memorable and form a bond with that customer. He then moves on to talk about how he is able to memorize people’s names using a mnemonic technique. He takes a memorable feature about them, such as being bald, and finds a means to tie it to their name. Such as: Bald – No Hair – Head is Reflective – Like a Mirror – M – Mark. Naturally he tends to pick aspects about people which are a bit insulting but it is only truly insulting when you say the train of thought outload. Again, I would argue this could be a handy tool to try because I also struggle to remember names of people I meet for the first time. A lot of his tips do seem a bit more designed for new sales staff but they are certainly still interesting. And if anything, this trip did allow Pam and Karen to see each other again and move past everything that happened with Jim. Karen is actually married now and she is pregnant, so needless to say she has been able to move past everything and said she was very happy for Pam and Jim.

This actually sparked something in Michael in how he really wants that for him and Holly. He is very conflicted on what to do but, in a surprise twist, Pam convinces him they should travel up to Nashua so he can try to find resolution with Holly. This requires them to blow off their lecture at Rochester, but no one really cares about those guys so Nashua it is!

You may be wondering what all was happening back at the office while Michael and Pam were having fun on their lecture circuit. Perhaps the most awkward part was in that Stanley brought in one of his clients to do a sales call at the office. This girl happened to be pretty attractive and caught the eye of Andy, so much so he spent the entire day trying to work up the courage to ask her out. He went so far as to peak into her car to find out what music she listens to, then traded two of his clients to Stanley to take on her account, and then spent the entire meeting trying to flirt with her. In the end he tries to kiss her (because that was how Creed got Squeaky Fromme back in the day) and she is mortified at this abruptness and smoothly exits the situation. Not only did Andy then lose that account, but wasted the two he gave to Stanley and didn’t get a date. I’m just going to throw this out there for who needs to hear it, you should not be trying to date your clients/customers and many companies do have policies against this. Some people do but they certainly choose better moments than how Andy handled this situation. He came on too strong, was unprofessional, and you should certainly not initiate the moment by trying to kiss her at your work place. For those out there, do not take love advise from Andy; or Creed for that matter.

At the same time, we were having some major Party Planning Committee (PPC) drama at the office. To recap, Angela Martin had been the head of the PPC for years but then Phyllis was put in charge after she discovered Angela and Dwight’s affair and was blackmailing them. Once everything came out, Michael decided that neither of them could be trusted to run the PPC and he should put two people in charge because one person becomes too powerful. So he put both Jim and Dwight in charge of the committee (I’m still bitter I wasn’t considered) and they are both livid over the whole notion of having to plan parties. They are already doing poorly at this role because they did not realize the previous day was Kelly’s birthday, and she came in today yelling at them over their thoughtlessness. It was actually Phyllis who pointed this out to Jim and Dwight, so I will point out that even though she knew it was Kelly’s birthday she still chose to not say anything. That is some stone cold bitterness over being taken off the PPC, but I do respect her bitterness. They are finally able to calm Kelly down by assuring her they are going to make up for this with throwing her a birthday party and it will be amazing.

It is now we get to see how Dwight and Jim can rise to the challenge of planning an office party. Now I do enjoy planning an event and I do put a lot pressure on myself, but an office birthday really should be pretty simple and not require the level of stress they suffered. Jim first had ask Kelly what sort of cake she wanted, and she asked for an ice cream cake. The majority of the employees here have been around for years and I would have thought there would be binder someplace which lists the favorite cake flavor and similar questions on employees. That being said, if anyone had such a book it would be Angela Martin who is likely withholding it out of her own spite for having the position taken away. Jim also was in charge of collecting the party dues from people ($3 per person) and is struggling very hard to get anyone to cough up the money. I did find this interesting because most of the time it would be the company which pays the cake and party. In my current job, when we still worked in an office our leader would go out and get cupcakes or a cake for the birthday person and she would put it on a company card. Of course, Angela Martin is also head of Accounting so is possible she neglected to tell them about the party fund they could draw from.

While Jim is working on the cake, Dwight was put in charge of decorating for the party so he is working tirelessly on getting the conference room to look nice. For signage he settled on printing a sign which says “It is your birthday.” He also is blowing up balloons to hang around the office, which he is barely filling up. I cannot tell if he doesn’t have the lung capacity, or maybe he decided these balloons are not worth his breath. He also choose to use grey and brown because they would accent the conference room best, and is hanging them up masking tape. He dated Angela for a long time, I would have believed that some of her party planning should have rubbed off on him. Or perhaps he is ignoring everything he did learn because he misses Angela too much; or he is just bad at it. Much like keeping a record of the cake flavors, I would have imagined favorite colors should have documented as well. I know that Angela keeps records and minutes from everything with the PPC, so I am not sure if she didn’t share all of that information, or if Jim and Dwight simply didn’t use any of it.

Now they are not done with the party yet, they are still trying to keep on planning so make it the highlight so stay tuned for second party of this. Do we think Jim and Dwight can actually throw a good party for Kelly? Will Michael and Holly be able patch things up and become friends? Will Andy ever find a girl who wants to be with him? You’ll have to wait until next week back here at the Breakroom to find out. I hope you all have a great weekend, and until next time I’ll see you at the Breakroom.

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 11 “Moroccan Christmas”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I am using up all the strength I have to be present today to ensure you get a proper Breakdown. Unfortunately, after a week of my husband being sick I have officially gotten the bug myself. Primarily it is weakness/exhaustion and my throat is so sore I don’t want to speak or swallow. Needless to say, it is not very fun and my sympathies to anyone else currently sick, especially heading into a holiday weekend. I was originally hoping to do some sort of barbecue get together but I’m leaning towards just getting rest and a movie marathon.

So I can get back to trying to rest, let us get down to the Breakdown this week!

You’re in for a festive treat this is the day of Dunder Mifflin’s Christmas Party! Naturally, such an event would be incomplete without one of Jim’s classic jokes. To really mess with Dwight, Jim decided to wrap his desk and all of his desk items in wrapping paper. He was able to get this done quickly because he is a black belt in gift wrapping, which Dwight shuts down as impossible because they do not give out black belts for things that are stupid. For the record, formal black belts are really only given out in martial arts although essentially the phrase would mean you are an expert at what you do. The closest example is Six Sigma which is a certification for various business leaders focusing on quality improvement. There are different levels of certification, each named after one of the belts seen in martial arts. I have long been critical of Six Sigma given that these certifications can get very expensive, not to mention very time intensive in comparison to others. And there has been criticisms that Six Sigma tends to stifle creativity or freedom to use concepts outside of the program. It is also much more focused on short term achievements rather than long term goals, and tends to breed the concept that leaders know what is best an their staff should simply follow suit. If I ever meet someone who lets me know they are a Six Sigma black belt, I would be sorely tempted to not respond with Dwight’s “They don’t give out black belts for things that are stupid.”

I would certainly give Jim’s prank a gold star over a black belt as while I find many of them ridiculous and mean, this particular one had creativity. As Dwight sat down at his desk to begin unwrapping it all, the entire mass collapsed into a heap. Turns out, Jim actually created a fake desk and chair from chicken wire that would fall apart as soon as Dwight sat down.

A Jim prank was about the most work-related thing we had going today because the majority of the shift really was dedicated to our Christmas party. With Phyllis the head of the Party Planning Committee (PPC) this was her first chance to host the holiday, and she went out all out. She went with “Night in Morocco” theme and completely transformed our office into a Moroccan Christmas. We have talked about doing Christmas parties before and Phyllis has really set the bar because rather than just going with a theme of Christmas, she has set up an entire other layer with Morocco. So what sort of details did Phyllis pay attention to?

Themed Decor
All around the office Phyllis arranged for Moroccan decor to be used; I am seriously wondering how much she spent on all of it. Makes me wonder if she is either renting it, or perhaps she has a Moroccan room in her house that she borrowed from. The floor is littered with ornate rugs as well as decorated pillows. I personally loved the magic lamp Jim was rubbing when he and Pam were hanging out at the reception desk. And, of course, some unique lighting can really add to the atmosphere.

Authentic Food
Rather than just traditional foods found in offices at Christmas, Phyllis made sure that we had food that would be found in Morocco. We had pita bread and hummus, and she even arranged for there to be Halwa Chebakia cookies which are often eaten during Ramadan. Do we think she made them herself with a book with Moroccan recipes or did she get it catered?

Music
At any party, the background music and sounds is absolutely key to maintaining the atmosphere. In additional to festive music playing, she also arranged for various instruments to be around the office such as hand drums and a sitar that Andy became obsessed with.

Stocked Bar
While this is not Moroccan, I do think having a fully stocked bar was a smart idea because it means there are a variety of options when it comes to drinks. Most interesting was how Michael took to being the bartender so quickly, and I think he may have have missed his calling. Perhaps his main fault was not knowing the names of existing drinks, such as how he thought he invented orange juice and vodka.

So Phyllis put a great deal of time and resources into making this one of the best Christmas parties I have ever seen. But if I was going to point out one error, it is how Phyllis claimed this would be just like your grandmother’s Christmas if she was from Morocco. Morocco is a Muslim country, so they do not actually celebrate Christmas there. Just a fun little factoid that I’m not sure many were aware of.

But no one seems to have noticed this inaccuracy and they are partying pretty hard. Andy is learning the sitar, Michael is making drinks for everyone, Jim and Pam are being all obnoxiously cute together, and Meredith is drinking just a bit too much. It is Dwight who stands out because he has a huge collection of a doll called Princess Unicorn. Turns out that each Christmas he figures out what the most popular toy is, buys the stock in the area, and then resells to desperate parents for an enormous profit. I have known about toy reselling for awhile, the big thing is for people to buy toys and other items for cheap from big box stores and then flip them on Amazon or Ebay for more than what they bought it for. Personally, I feel there was a time where this very lucrative but online shopping is so prevalent these days, with too many people trying to do this, that it is now much too much work. I think you’re better off looking for other options to make some extra money then having to sink everything in a toy that you hope you can flip.

But all good things come to an end, and this party came to a shocking end when we suddenly saw Meredith get her hair on fire on a candle while dancing in the breakroom. Thank goodness Dwight was in there within seconds with the extinguisher to put her out. It is hard to get back to a party after someone was set on fire but Michael was determined to find a way. His idea? To do an impromptu intervention for Meredith, what he describes as “a surprise party for people who have addictions.” This is mildly true, an intervention is when family and friends sit down with a person who is dealing with an addiction in an attempt to get them the tools to fight it. Most often the goal is to get them into some sort of recovery center to work licensed professionals. Michael attempts to kick one off and while most of the office agreed that Meredith has a drinking problem, we couldn’t come up with scenarios in which she hurt us with her drinking. And it didn’t help that Michael’s list he found online of what to look for in a drinking problem seems to have come from a Mormon church. Meredith is incredibly apprehensive until she and Michael spend some time along chatting and he is able to convince her to go with him and he drives her to the center. Or so we thought; it turns out Michael told her they were going for a drink and he was going to try to trap in a treatment center. That is the thing with these types of facilities, you do have to willingly go in because that is usually the first step; being able to admit you have a problem and need help.

Back at the office there was the argument between Phyllis and Angela. Leading the charge on the party, Phyllis had been barking orders at Angela all night long. In her defense, Angela often treated many of us the same way when she was head of the PPC so Phyllis got a bit power mad and wanted to get her revenge. But turns out there was another piece to it because something snapped in Phyllis, and she told the office that Angela and Dwight have been sleeping together. Considering that Angela is engaged to Andy, this is by no means a good thing. And as Andy was not in the room at the time, he is still completely unaware of this development. This did make it very awkward when he came out to give us a rendition of “Deck the Halls” that he figured out on the sitar. Angela quickly got them out and now we are all sort of trying to determine what we are supposed to do with this knowledge.

And that, everyone, is this week’s Breakdown! Thank you for bearing with me while I put this one together while ill and I hope it is still up to our high standards here at Breakroom Breakdown. Given the holiday coming up, feel free to share what your plans are for this weekend! Until next week, I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom.

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 4 “Baby Shower”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! This has certainly been a very odd week in my opinion, has anyone else felt that way? On the one hand, we recently saw a whole new slew of tariffs put into place by President Trump1 which he stated would force other countries to stop taking advantage of our country. As we learned previously, tariffs are actually additional fees that Americans would pay in order to bring in the products to the country, and are traditionally passed along to the consumer. Because the rest of the world understands this, we saw a shocking hit to the Dow as these tariffs were announced. As some of my readers will know, I am by no means a fan of the stock market and see it as just a means for the ultra wealthy to gamble with money, exert influence, and overly inflate their presence with fake money. But there are still plenty of people whose entire life savings are tied with stocks and the last thing I would want is to see them lose their money. I hope that this tariff war ends soon, as they truly never solve anything and only make matters worse, we will be lucky if we do not go into a signification economic recession over them. If that wasn’t enough, we received one last dumping of snow Wednesday which seemed to range from 6 to 10 inches through Minnesota. Thankfully it warmed up as Thursday and is quickly melting so we will hopefully be able to see the grass again during the weekend.

In spite of all that happening, I was able to find a bit of positivity to this week. Work has actually been pretty quiet (aside from quite a few employees who do not seem to understand W-2s or taxes) so I’ve been able to stay on top of everything that I need to. The renovations on our soon-to-be game room are essentially done, which of course means the start of the next area. And I found an assorted pack of macarons at Costco, so that was a really exciting moment when I noticed those (and proceeded to buy three of them). All of that might not seem like anything super extraordinary but I think it is important to focus on those aspects which promote the overall contentment in our lives. Especially when many of us are terrified of what is going to happen each day ranging from being able to afford to food on the table to the very real possibility we can be taken hostage by ICE despite being citizens, let us try to find something that can give us the strength to carry on each day.

I recall I also mentioned I need to try to relay how I have been able to focus on my health lately. I have been slightly better about not snacking as much every day, so that is something. I also did some good shoveling yesterday as well held our Loki for a good 10 minutes at one point and my arms are still feeling it! Besides trying to be more active, I also need to be better about my sleep. I feel like it takes a bit too long lately to wind down so I am going to try to mix up my evening routine to relax.

Now, to try to bring a little bit of contentment to your day, let us look at what happened at the office today!

We have only one real topic on the agenda and that is the pending birth of Jan Levinson’s baby! As you may recall a few weeks ago, Jan had decided to be artificially inseminated and have a baby. It sounds like she has been wanting this for a long time and decided this was really the last chance to fulfil that goal in her life. And despite it not being his kid, Michael seems to have this odd obsession with the child almost like he sees it as his last chance to have a kid. If they were still together it would make more sense, but they aren’t even dating so it is getting quite odd.

He began the day off with running through a simulation, designed by Dwight, on what to do if Jan were to go into labor. As with most plans it primarily consisted of getting to the hospital right away, but Dwight did proceed to “give birth” to a watermelon so Michael can practice the actual birth part as well. While I have never been present at a birth, I do know that the babies come out wet so I feel his use of butter because “newborns are slippery” was a smart decision. But Dwight also had his own step in which Michael needed to be prepared with a sharpie to apply a design that only he would recognize and no kidnapper could replicate. I have not spoken with anyone from a hospital on this, but I am not quite sure how they would react to a parent wanting to make such a mark. I think it is safe to say that Dwight would not trust them, so this is meant to be a secret so no one is to know about the mark aside from yourself.

In addition to that, Michael tasked the office with hosting a baby shower for Jan at the office. You heard that right, the woman who is not dating Michael or carrying his baby, and no longer works for the company, is having a party throwing for her by this office. It was pretty evident looking at the work the Party Planning Committee (PPC) that they didn’t really consider it a high priority. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very nice arrangement but if it had been for someone actually in the office it would likely have been more extravagant. Now I have never throwing a baby shower for anyone, kids aren’t exactly my thing, but I have been to at least one and I have a great mind for planning events so let us break down what was at the party.

Decorations
Every good party needs decorations and that includes a baby shower. Themes vary but the most common one is to use pastel colors because they are soft and comforting like a baby is. It is also not uncommon to see the colors modified on if the gender of the baby is known, usually blue for boys and pink for girls. Sometimes they will intentionally go against the norm, any fan of Gilmore Girls will be able to tell that you “green is the new pink.” Streamers and balloons are classic and simple decorations, although Michael seems to believe they could have gone bigger. If you wanted to add another layer or design a theme you can always try to incorporate babies or baby animals as a fun theme. Or why not really stand out and do something like Lord of the Rings and some of gifts are capes for the baby’s first adventure.

Games
Games are almost always held at baby showers as some entertainment. One common one is that people wear clothes pins and the rule is if someone catches you saying words like “baby” they get to steal yours. And at the end of the event, the one with most pins is the winner. Another is playing guessing games, almost like placing bets, on trying to see when the baby will be born, their birth gender (if not known), and their height/weight. I have also heard of the one where diapers are filled with various things and people need to figure out what it is, usually by smell. Since it is a party, the games are meant to entertain people and there are often prizes associated so even guests get to walk away with something.

Food
Every party needs a bit of food! I feel this is where you can tell the PPC didn’t put in a ton of effort, although they likely didn’t have much of a budget. Their only real snack are personalized M&Ms with the possible baby names, Chevy for a boy and Astird for a girl. I could tell that was wrong but Michael assured me that’s what he was told by Jan. They also filled some new bottles with beverages like juice to drink out of; I actually thought this idea was cute. And then there was a sheet cake, and it is very hard to go wrong with a cake. So I mentioned that I have been to one baby shower before and they actually had a whole taco bar there, so that is where I feel the PPC phoned it in. Yes, what they had served was really cool, but ideally there should have been some more filling foods to go along with the candy and cake.

Gift
Finally, it is standard that when attending a baby shower to bring a gift. In this case, we collectively went in on a stroller to give to Jan for the baby. Most showers seem to have registries that guests can choose from, this is mainly to eliminate the risk of people getting the same item. But there are some really good items which you can never go wrong with. Things like bottles are always needed, onesies will always be needed, and I’ve been told diapers are also ones that you cannot have too many of, especially because the baby will go through multiple sizes. At the shower I went to, it was actually asked that people pick out a favorite children’s book and to bring that. I personally loved this idea because not only does it provide the baby and parent(s) with plenty to read, the goal was to have the guests pick out books that were important to them. This way the guest can pass along a small piece of themselves. Again, I feel it was evident that the office just wanted to go along with whatever was simplest.

Jan finally arrives and that is when she has a special surprise for us: she already had the baby. Not even calling Michael, she had gone into labor and already gave birth to her baby girl, Astrid (not Astird as Michael thought). Michael insisted that this would not ruin the party and would only enhance everything. It only seemed to make it awkward because no one would guess about the birth of the baby, Michael seemed hurt by the incident, and then Jan was very much as out insane as ever. She proceeded to sing to the entire office, napped on the couch, and tried to explain to us about her tub birth. She also didn’t really care for our present because not only did she already have a stroller, it was a very fancy Orbit Stroller. They have become very popular, besides being durable they were designed to be able to rotate to assist with the issue of deal with strollers that are single-facing.

Evidently hers cost at around $1,200 and Dwight was completely and utterly baffled by this. In his mind, because that was how much he spent on his entire bomb shelter, the stroller should be indescribable. I did do some research online and couldn’t find any definitive values associated by I saw a range of $2,000 to $250,000. The key is certainly how big your shelter would be, what sort of amenities you want in there, specific materials, and then how much work you do yourself. Dwight is a very hands on type of person, and I would imagine that he would conduct all of the work on his shelter himself, aside from help from his cousin Mose. I feel that would keep costs low, since he has a farm he probably has deals on certain construction materials and equipment, and it is entirely possible that he converted an existing room to the shelter. I always thought it would be cool to have a bomb shelter or panic room, and emergency area designated should the opportunity arise. There isn’t really a good space here for that, so I have been thinking of putting together emergency supplies in case of a situation.

So that is my question, anyone here have a panic room or emergency shelter? If not, perhaps a cache of emergency supplies? Do you have any sort of tips or recommendations for anyone thinking of doing the same?

So after the huge to-do that Michael tried to do, Jan left very unceremoniously and no one was very quick to see her out. Michael did, of course, and when he came back he had an odd look on his face. I don’t know what Jan said to him but he immediately went to the annex to speak to Holly, filled with an odd energy.

And that, my friends, was the baby shower. I have never been to a baby shower held at work previously so I don’t know how normal such an occurrence is because I feel that is normally a very private act.

Anyone have any baby shower stories that beat “she arrived with her baby already born?”

With that, I hope you all have a great week. Please stay positive and be a kind person, and as always I will be sure to see you around the Breakroom.

  1. Brown, B., Warren, M., & Yee, C. (n.d.). Live updates: Trump’s new tariffs lead to the biggest Dow wipeout since 2020. AP News. https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-4-3-2025 ↩︎