wine room at Cioppino's in Yaletown. I had never been and the food was absolutely amazing! It is definitely somewhere to go in the future. (We've been searching for a replacement for West, our last "fave dining spot".)The one downside to the evening was the number of people we had to seat in the room. It didn't allow for easy mingling, like at our last parties. Next year we will find a restaurant which allows that, or we will host again. Regardless, with David starting off our evening with Bollinger '97 Champagne, we were in for a niiiiiice night.
Before dinner began, we presented the POTY award for 2006. Now, the first year that we had this award, people were calling it "Potty"... and really wondering what the heck we were awarding. Perhaps the person who took the fewest bathroom breaks
during the year? POTY stands for "Performance of the Year". We have had some illustrious winners, Loren Davidson and Lorraine Chisholm respectively. This year, we broke the initial "L" pattern and awarded it to Ross Howard-Jones. Here is a picture with me and Ross... note it is pre-drinks so everyone is remarkably sober looking. (David requested the awards be before dinner so that he could deliver his speech lucidly.) 
After the dinner, we played the White Elephant game. I think next year, we'll have people bring gifts, but this year Jenny and I hit the streets to find some popular and not-so-popular gifts. You'll notice in the next series of photos, the gift I stole from Loren, quickly became one of the most popular "steals".
Overall, we had a wonderful night. Our guests contibuted over $350 for our charity of the year: The VASE. This charity supports Natives in the downtown eastside (the area where our office is located). It teaches them literacy and skills to allow them to start their own businesses. David and I pledged to match the donations, so in all we contributed over $700. We plan to continue this charitable trend every year.
In all, a wonderful night to be a part of Donat Group!
