Nogfest Volume II
Yesterday, Macaroni and I had a grand day of adventure. We started our adventure at some ungodly hour in the morning (9oo) and set out to collect Paul and go kill us a Christmas tree. We went to a nice little tree farm to select our tree. Right before we entered the grove (?) with the Christmas trees, there was an informative sign telling us the selling points and drawbacks of each kind of tree on the lot. After carefully considering all the points, we decided that it didn't matter which tree we picked as long as it wasn't a white pine, which sucked all around. We ended up picking the best tree on the lot (of course). They had a neat machine at the enterence to the farm which shook the dead needles out of the tree. If you've never watched a rapidly vibrating Christmas tree before, then I must inform you that it is simply mesmerizing.
After bringing home the Christmas tree, we made a gigantic pizza, smothered in gooey cheese and peperonis. It was delicious, and also a little too much food for lunch.
Next, we went over to Geoff's house for Nogfest, a party in which we make egg nog from scratch and eat Christmas cookies. We spent the first little while playing Roller Coaster Tycoon (you're jealous). When we tired of RCT, we had dinner and then the boys made some nog while Amanda, Lily and I talked on the couch. The boys did a good job of making the nog, which I think tastes an aweful lot like melted vanilla ice cream. It was really hard to drink more than one glass, however.
When the rest of the guests showed up the boys started playing a game called "Hitchiker" and we wandered off to the kitchen. At one point, Lily decided to show us the basement, and we came up with the brilliant idea to hide under the stairs and try to scare the boys. Our plan failed in that the boys neither noticed we were gone, nor seemed to care. So, to kill time we pulled out Blockus and played that under the stairs. It was actually stupidly fun, and makes me want to buy a copy for myself. While playing we started using blockus as a verb, which made us all giggle whenever someone said, "Damn, you blockused me!" or "I'm trying to see how I can blockus you." It was great fun, even though I was decidedly bad at it.
Later, when the boys joined us downstairs, we started playing Balderdash. It was another game that I had never played before (gasp) but I was very amused with. Julia ended up being really good at the game and kicked all of our asses, ending the game rather quickly. The rest of the night we spent sitting in a circle and talking.
We left a little before 11:30. On the ride home Macaroni commented how much the whole party felt grown-up. I had to agree. It was nice to be at a social gathering that was primarily couples, where the prime objective wasn't "get wasted." Everyone acted like adults and we all had a really fun time. Events like that make me excited to be growing up, and grateful to have well grounded friends.
-Xenos