Game Night

When we first moved to this house, I felt the Lord say that we were entering into a season of "Giving Parties". Uh, yeah...I'm serious. On the off-set, I was pretty all over it. We had just come off of this year-and-a-half of hardcore "Desert time" (LOTS of being stretched and emptied and challenged and prodded). And I was thinking the whole party theme sounded pretty sweet. I mean...God could've had said we were getting ready to enter a season of ...any number of things. So I considered myself pret-ty stinking lucky to have drawn the party 'chip'. Yay me!

But here's the thing. I have this problem. It''s called perfectionism. So the whole host-a-bazillion-parties ideal started making me nervous. "You mean, have people over here? to my not-so-perfect house?! and then proceed to entertain them with my not so perfect ideas? and feed them with my not so perfect food? and laugh at their not so perfect jokes? (hee hee) Uh sorry, God. You got the wrong girl. Not sure I'm equipped to go through with it."

YES, I am so serious. Admittedly, I have this anal retentive streak that struggles to keep me in the grand stands watching... instead of living life.

But *drum roll* I have obediently "suffered" through. :) And to be honest, I'm not even sure I can count up how many parties we've had in the last 2 years! It's been a B-L-A-S-T!!! And I'm so proud to report that anal retentive streak has suffered a mighty blow. Can I get a Hey-Ho!! Hey Ho!! *doing a little chair dance*

This evening was one of our "random parties". Which, by the way, is what we do. We invite a bunch of random people over...people that we think would gel well, but don't normally get to hang out together. (I LOVE connecting people like that) Add a little food to the mixture and voile! You can rest assured that the people will talk and joke and play games until the wee hours of the morning. Some people we can't push out of front door if we tried. hee hee I love it!

This go round, we decided to go ahead and do the whole dinner thing together...that way, we'd at least be done before midnight. :) We barely made it!!

And for the record, Bill...the men may have won this time. But--and there IS a big ol' butt--next time is another story. Jeanie, Ellen, Nell-Marie, Linda, Hannah, and I WILL prevail. I can just feel it.
Our newly finished deck. Complete with deck furniture borrowed from my parents. :)
Bill...Not sure what he's charading, but it was hilarious. You'll never get to know someone quite so well as you do when watching them try to get you to say "mermaid" ...with gestures only! For the record Jet, YOUR rendition of a mermaid looked like a sick duck. Sorry, babe.
A couple of the ladies. You know, pretending to like each other for posterity sake.