Christmas with the Cranks

So, last night I celebrated the upcoming Christmas holiday with some of my best friends!  I know what you're thinking....  Going to Christmas parties isn't Z-List at all and you're right, this is the most A-List thing I've done in a while!  Granted it wasn't a party with the Pitt-Jolies or the Obama's but it was still pretty high class.  The guest list for this party consisted of: Jenalea (hostess with the mostest), Courtney (hostess/grump), Amanda (hostess/chef), Allyssa (resident diva), Wes (self-proclaimed playa), Trenton (sarcasm expert/baker), Sarah (Courtney's friend, not Jenalea's), Payton (person living with tourette syndrome), Emily (Walgreen's employee), Kelli (Courtney's sister/recent divorcée), Taylor (the "ex" of the divorcée) Michael (the Drags!) and myself (Z-lister)!  You may be thinking we are a pretty motley crew, and you'd be absolutely correct, but we are pretty amazing when we're all together!  We are a combination like no other....  OMG!!  I almost forgot another guest, Dorcus (house pet/mascot)!  Speaking of D-Dog, she wore the most FABULOUS necklace to this party.... I only wish I had a picture!

Anyways, the party starts off in grand fashion, with Allyssa and myself arriving fashionably late, naturally. I was decked out in my winter's best, and Allyssa wore an eggplant long-sleeved shirt.  On our way to the party we received like 15 calls/texts from Jenalea (the party nazi) telling us how we were late and how she was pretty much disgusted by our tardiness.  Allyssa tried to use the excuse that her facebook invite said the party's start time was 8:30 instead of 6:30, but the hostesses weren't going to let that slide!  However, I will vouch for Ms. King, her online invite did indeed show an 8:30 start time.  Finally, Allyssa and I pull up to the party, blinded by the flashbulbs of the photographers gathered outside the house, or maybe it was just the flash from Jenalea's digital camera which seems to be permanently attached to her hand at all friend-based functions!   Not that I'm complaining about her documenting all our precious moments spent together, but I always feel like I have to have my pretty face on when I'm around her because you never know what kind of shot/predicament she's going to capture you in.  I mean, you could be opening up wide in order to shovel a queso covered Santita into your mouth and the next think you know its captured and plastered all over facebook within the hour.  She should definitely be a paparazzo!

The theme for this party was Holiday Hoopla which consisted of everyone bringing their favorite Hors d'œuvre.  The menu consisted of a lot of various things, all of which I devoured, but here's a little glimpse at the menu: queso, hanky pankies, little smokies, a cheese tray (my contribution), vegetable pizza, fiesta dip, and a chocolate chip cheese ball.  There was also some jungle juice-ish concoction, various alcoholic beverages, puppy chow, Chex mix, M&M's (peanut, peanut butter and mint), and a few other things that seem to be slipping my mind.  However, you can see that there was definitely a Smörgåsbord of choices.  The only thing I didn't try from the menu was the vegetable pizza, and I didn't eat that because Jenalea had absentmindedly forgotten to add the most important ingredient, mayonnaise, to the mixture!  HAHAHA....What a let down, right?!

So, I've talked about the attendees and the food, what else should I discuss?  Oh yeah, the gift exchange!!

So, in the facebook invite there was a discussion about a 'White Elephant' gift exchange with a $10 limit.... This was misleading because a traditional White Elephant gift exchange involves every participant bringing an item they have at home that they wish to get rid of. I assumed that with a limit of $10 that we were supposed to go get a gift to exchange, which meant it wouldn't be a White Elephant Christmas.  So, this White Elephant exchange was ran more like a 'Chinese Christmas' in the fact that we were allowed to steal gifts from other people.  In addition, we weren't allowed to open our gifts until we were completely done stealing/selecting our gifts.  This made it extra difficult because you didn't know what you were getting inside your package.  Once your gift was opened, you couldn't exchange it with anyone else, nor could it be stolen.  Here's a list of the gifts everyone unwrapped and who got what:

Egg cracker - Sara

Pineapple - Emily

Tortilla Heaven DVD - Michael

Sticky Notes/Reasons to get drunk: Me

Old Spice Hygiene Kit - Kelli 

Chia Pet - Payton

2 extra comfortable plush throws - Jenelea

McDonald's Gift Card - Courtney

Fruitcake - Wes

Snowman filled with Candy - Amanda 

Cow print foot massager - Allyssa

It's clear that some gifts were better than others, which was to be expected.  However, I wish I would have known that the gifts were supposed to be a little on the sillier side, so I could have planned accordingly!!!!  Oh well, it was still a good time!

After all the holiday activities had concluded, the hoopla turned into something straight out of the scene from a movie about college life.  There were people taking Jello-o shots, some drinking Franzia, others drinking beer, some drinking everyone's left over beer, which means they never drink the same thing twice and usually end up pretty drunk.  There were people playing card games, people talking in corners, Wes making failed attempts to hit on the new girls with his creeper voice (which Jenalea thinks is soothing), and some people "sleeping" upstairs.  It took me back to my days at Baker, back to the Sig Ep house during Komanawanalaya when I almost got into a fight with that guy that married the girl that looks like a chihuahua because he thought I took his beer when there were 5,348,827,340 at the bar grabbing beers like they were food rations being passed out to Katrina victims!  Oooh, too soon?!  Maybe so!?  Forgive me New Orleans!  

At some point during the night we started playing a "Horse race" card game....  It's the simplest of all games, yet seems to get people really fired up.  The competition was really starting to heat up, the clubs (my team) were in the lead, which is typical, followed not far behind by spades, hearts and diamonds.  All of a sudden the diamonds get three lucky draws in a row, all of which are warranted with screams of "THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!!!!! " from Payton!  It was random and hilarious at the same time.... I was a little scared because it seemed that she had had WAAAY too much to drink!  (She was one of those people drinking everyone's left overs)  At one point I don't think she could speak or understand English anymore!  Come to think of it, there were certain aspects of her being that reminded me of my long lost friend Kirbee (Kirbs) Yost!

The night continued on in this fashion, people drinking, laughing, playing card games while Payton had random tourrette moments with shout outs.  All in all it was pretty successful and a really really fun!  I can't wait until we are all able to get together and celebrate another holiday!  If you think this was wild, you just wait until Martin Luther King Jr. Day!  You're definitely in for a doozey!

P.S. Apparently there is a rather large group of people coming to Missie B's tonight to support Tajma in her show!  I'm excited for her and thankful to my friends for being so supportive!  Maybe I'll make a post about the on goings of the drag show?  It could be good!  Maybe in that post I'll have pictures too?!