Happy Holidays everyone! It is always a surprise how quickly the year seems to go by and this one was no exception.

2018 was an exciting and busy year for the staff at DPM. Our company welcomed many new faces, we now have a second office, we were on the Growth 500 list and turned 8! We continued to work with our amazing clients, added new ones to our roster and completed some amazing milestone projects. We are extremely grateful of the work we continue to be involved in and the clients we get to work with in order to get these projects to fruition.

Since the holiday season is all about getting together to celebrate those who add meaning to our days, we polled some of the DPM staff about their favourite holiday traditions.
It was interesting and heartwarming to hear what each staff member picked to share. It provided additional insight to those we share the office with, but it also showed that we share a lot of common traditions, even though they might be slightly different.
In such a diverse workforce, we have people in our office that come from all over the world, with varying religious and cultural backgrounds but almost everyone shared a tradition or food that related to their family. The traditions our staffed shared, stem from when they themselves were children or new ones they have started with their own children.

A lot of holiday traditions revolve around activities with the extended family:

Goes to church with her family. Also, important to mention that the next day leftover sandwich, the mashed potatoes need to be on it- Katie K.
Spends Christmas Eve with the extended family – Michael G.
Started a holiday tradition for her kids when they were born. Since they must go see the extended family on Christmas Day, her children open presents from her husband and herself on Boxing Day which she always records- Stephanie T.
Gets together with the extended family where they play parlour games and eat lechon (whole pork)- Kenneth E.
Some people’s traditions involved being outdoors:
Every year the whole family goes together to cut down their own Christmas Tree- Kevin M.
Snowboarding with friends- Andre L.

Or travelling:

Having pizza and traveling somewhere hot- Nandan K.
Usually go back home to Dubai, but this year going to travel to the UK. Traveling allows him to hide from the snow- Shaunak P.
Travel somewhere, drink hot chocolate and go downhill skiing- Sunny C.

Or watching movies/attending events:

Every Christmas Day goes to the movies with his mom. Orders an extra-large popcorn and a pop and watch movies- George M.
Watch Scrooge, National Lampoons Christmas vacation every year- Al N.
Watch Home Alone every year- Kamran R.
Watch Billy Murray in Scrooge every year with hot chocolate and the entire family – Karl C.
Attends “Tid the season” with friends every year- Trevor D.

Some were classic:

Family gift exchange- Daniel T.
Having a Secret Santa with family- Diogo P.
Goes to her mom’s house every year in Christmas pj’s- Chelsie P.
The Christmas tree, sets the ambiance that makes it feels like the holiday is here- Adam M.
Oranges in stockings- Johnathan C.

And of course, you can never forget about the food and drinks:

Going to his Nona’s (grandmother’s) house for her lasagna. It is a special treat- Andrew B.
Every year as soon as he walks into his mother’s house, he heads toward the basket of fried dough which his mom makes every year for Christmas- Nick I.
Eating lentils for superstition. Believes that they will earn more money for the next year. Usually mixed with rice and raisins- Diogo P.
Beef ribs, special treat just for the holidays- June P.
Typical Portuguese food- Richard A.
Chestnuts on the fire with eggnog- Robert R.
Brie bake with strawberry jam – Chelsie P.
Grandmother’s chicken macaroni- Stephanie T.
Festive libations with the family- Aneel K.

Regardless of how you spend the festive season, we would like to extend a very Happy Holidays from the entire DPM Energy Team and we wish you all the best for a successful 2019!