Saturday Morning.... after Charades Night.

What a great party! Just when you think you've had the best party (Valentine's Day), you have an even better one (last night). This time, instead of playing ladies against the men, we broke up into two "color" teams, the Reds against the Blues. We picked teams using colored swizzle-sticks that I'd found.... I asked everyone to pick a stick without telling them why they were picking.

Such laughs, I swear all the neighbors must hear us (the ones on our street who don't play Charades). Just before we started to play, one of our friends reminded me to close the front door--- this way, we only make fools of ourselves in front of the Charades group, not the whole street.

We had some new couples last night... some who hadn't ever played before, but they were great and they loved it. One new couple even searched the Internet for Charades, so they knew how to play before they got here and they were one of the best couples playing.

One of our friends is a master at Tai Chi... he does his exercises every morning in the park. We found out last night that he's much better at Tai Chi than Charades, so I told my husband that he'll be out in the park this morning practicing his moves for Charades instead of doing his Tai Chi. The hardest clues he had to give last night were for "Howdy Doody," and that was a total scream to watch.

The best "clues" last night were given for "The Naked and The Dead." I thought we'd be calling the paramedics because we were nearly falling out of our chairs watching that one acted out.... a sweater came off, then a scarf, then shoes.... then the woman giving the clues played dead on the floor. She was on the other team, and I got the answer before her team did and I had to hold my hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream out the title.

We had two teenagers here as well last night...... our young friend C came along with her mom, and the granddaughter of our friend K was visiting Houston this week, so we told her to bring her along. We thought the two girls would keep busy in the TV room with board games and the gift-bags of surprises that I had for them, but for most of the night, they watched us play Charades and even joined us in the game (both giving clues and guessing answers). My little C told me "We should do this every Friday night!" (Little..... I keep seeing her as a little girl..... she is 14 now, for goodness sakes.)

The dining room table was filled with food..... and because we had new people last night, we had some different foods on the table. You never know what's going to be here for a pot-luck dinner, but that's part of the fun as well. The eggplant rolls that I made disappeared quickly, as did a tortellini/vegetable salad that C's mom brought over. I stuffed crescent rolls with cheese and pesto, and those were a hit, as were broiled turkey/swiss sandwiches that I cut into finger-size. We had a baked vegetable dish from The Philippines, sushi-sized pinwheels made of sliced meat and cream cheese, a homemade German potato salad, southern-style brown-sugar baked beans, and Greek green beans. There was a delicious carrot cake, an English Trifle, and a homemade chocolate cake.... and I can't remember what else.

A truly great night........ we played for longer than usual, and the party broke up late. By the time my husband and I got everything cleaned up, it was way after one o'clock. By the time we went to bed, you wouldn't have known we'd had a party here. Which is a great way to wake up the next morning, because you can talk about the party all you want without having to deal with the remains of it all around the living room/dining room/kitchen.

So..... when's the next party? I'm ready......