Valentine's Charades Party

It is nearly one o'clock in the morning as I type... the party is over, the kitchen and dining room are back together, as is the living room and breakfast room. Once again, the Charades group managed to out-do themselves. We had a tie tonight.... 52 points for the ladies, 52 points for the men. A first.... and of course, the men have vowed to win the next time.

The food on the buffet table was, once again, outstanding.... Asian noodles with shrimp, Tex-Mex chicken casserole, barbequed chicken legs, oyster dressing, chicken pot pie, green bean and artichoke casserole, ham and cheese tid-bits with gourmet crackers, spinach and strawberry salad, six-bean salad, barbequed sausages, turkey and swiss cheese rolls, rum cake, chocolate cake, fruit ambrosia, and a cranberry/strawberry/sherbet punch. I don't think I'm leaving anything out, but it's late and I'm tired.... all I know is, the dining room table was filled with food and everyone went back for seconds and thirds.

We fixed up a plate for our friend J who has bronchitis, and I will bring that to her tomorrow, along with the gift bag that I had made for her. One of our friends brought a pretty bouquet of flowers, but I can't have those in the house here because both ShadowBaby and Mickey Kitty will pull them apart... so I will bring those up to J and let her enjoy them while she's not feeling well.

I swear I cannot believe how much noise we made tonight... so much laughing that we were practically falling out of our chairs at some points. Our friends S and T were able to come tonight-- their small children didn't get sick and they got a baby-sitter, so they were able to have a good night out, which they haven't had for a while now. Both S and T are so good at Charades, and S had us rolling out of our seats with her clues. Too, too funny.... she pranced and pouted and winked and vamped as she tried to act out the word "woman" in one of her clues. We weren't getting the answer too quickly, but our friend L told her to just keep on going because he was enjoying "the show."

For one of the other clues, the answer was the song "Mona Lisa," and our friend S (C's dad) did his best to arrange his face into a Mona Lisa-type of smile. Well, it worked, and our friend J (from the antique shop) yelled out that answer. Another clue that had us falling out of our chairs.

There is so much chocolate in this house at the moment.... a bunch of our friends gave us boxes of Valentine candy as host/hostess gifts... we didn't expect that, and we always tell everyone just to bring something for the potluck dinner and that's it. But in they came, bearing chocolates and a large tin of gourmet cookies. We should have another party and just serve all these chocolates and cookies for dessert.

Amazing how competitive we all get with the Charades games. Probably because it's men against the ladies. And the method of giving clues is so different between the two groups. The men try and act out each word... the ladies most often can act out the entire clue. Sometimes it's the other way around. One of our friends (V's husband S) was having a difficult time thinking of the best way to act out his Charade, so he started to tell a joke instead.

Young C was here with her parents, all decked out in every blessed piece of heart jewelry that she owned... heart earrings, heart bracelets, strands of heart necklaces from all of our parties. Plus she had a pouch filled with red and white arrows slung over her shoulder, so we were calling her Cupid for half of the night. And, just as I thought... she was indeed wearing the "cool" shoes that I had found for her last week at the shoe outlet.

Another successful party... we have such a great group of friends here. We'll have to put together a small dinner party with K and B, and C and R, and invite J to join us... as soon as J gets to feeling better, so she can meet our more artistic friends. I don't know what I'll be serving for dinner, but I do know what we'll be serving for dessert. (Gourmet cookies and chocolates!)