Fall Chili Cookoff!! (a.k.a. Productivity in the Workplace)

Perhaps the most anticipated team event where I work is the annual Fall Chili Cookoff. Each of the event teams (we're randomly assigned our event teams at the beginning of every year) picks a theme which is kept top secret from all of the other teams until the day of the cookoff. We are assigned a conference room and are able to decorate it according to our theme. Real judges come in from outside of the company to judge our team's chili, overall theme, and this year was added the pumpkin decorating. I was volunteered for that task even though I have never carved or painted a pumpkin in my life! So I stared at this ginormous pumpkin on my dining room table almost the entire week leading up to Friday before sitting down and attempting to make it look halfway presentable. See below for the results after SEVEN hours of work on Thursday night~


This side of the pumpkin was a mural of all things pertaining to my team's theme - The Price is Right!!

As I mentioned to a few people, I really was going to attempt drawing Bob Barker's face on this side of the pumpkin. Needless to say, drawing a cartoon face on paper is much easier than on the side of a pumpkin. So this side of the pumpkin stayed blank until about 11pm on Thursday night when I decided at the last minute to paint the show's logo.

The TV screen at the front desk of the office on Friday welcomed the judges who were coming in to judge the teams~

Tourists aren't tourists at The Price is Right without cheesy t-shirts (or just taping signs to themselves)! Mine was the actual shirt I wore to the show five years ago with my church's college group. The front says "The Price is Right with Jesus" and on the back is the passage from Corinthians "for you were bought with a price."

"Brian from Cocoa Beach" is elated to meet "Drew Carey" for the first time (the man who played Drew is actually a small British man who had to stuff his suit in order to get the effect of being puffy)

Our company has grown so much that we have to share conference rooms now for the chili cookoff. Our team shared a room with the team who had Winter Olympics as their theme. One of the Olympians tried to sneak into the show, and "Drew" managed to get an interview and sign an autograph before shooing her away~

"Drew" getting a photo op with one of his biggest fans~

We had three featured games from The Price is Right and "Plinko" proved to be the favorite!

Ms. Rhonda was on the team that had an 80s theme, and she definitely fit the part with her tight-rolled jeans!

Even some of our executives take the time to dress in a grass skirt if it means they are on the island vacation team~

This is a picture of productivity in the workplace - an ongoing game of Cornhole in the regional area~

My friend, Mindy, was on the team with the island vacation theme. She played the role of a tourist and took it as a great opportunity to bring sweet Rylie with her to work!

The company I work for continually promotes a positive environment and this is one of the many ways in which they do that. The team events not only allow us to pause and take a breath in the middle of an otherwise hectic week or season, but we also get to meet people from other departments that we may not really know otherwise. I had a great time, and it reminded me all the more of how much I love this time of the year!

(P.S. Our team came in 6th place out of 14, but we still had a blast! And my pumpkin came in 7th place...what??? Oh well, my team liked it at least!)