Dinner Parties are Underrated!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of joining some great friends for a wonderful 'Ugly Christmas Sweater' dinner party.  Why don't people do this more often?  We usually end up meeting friends out at a restaurant or bar- it's noisy, the wine is expensive, and the food is so-so.  A dinner party, on the other hand, is the way to go.  You're in the capable chef hands of dear friends who have thought of all of the details to make your evening enjoyable, comfortable, and so much fun.  We're blessed to have such thoughtful and entertaining friends!

We arrived to the sound of the Country Christmas music channel playing and a house filled with the smells of holiday food and fireplace.  We did a little twirl to show off our tacky sweater ensembles.  We discussed the ways in which we'd aquired our sweaters, the sorting methods we used at various goodwill stores, and the difference in sizing and buttoning between women's and men's sweaters.  The boys were a little thrown off by buttoning on the other side.  In all, I'd say we looked pretty sharp for a group of tacky sweater wearers.  You be the judge:

We enjoyed home cooked food, wine, and some incredible new Woodchuck champagne type cider, and laughed well into the evening.  Dinner parties don't have to be stuffy and boring... at least no when this group gets together.  We told funny stories, Mike and Jeremy acted normally:

All of this is not only to show off all of our great tacky sweater ensembles, but also to remind you that dinner parties are a great way to have a small group of friends over and simply enjoy the evening.  We made our way back to the living room somewhere near midnight and snapped a few more tacky photos.

note our gracious hosts on the top left and bottom right... they were su buy hosting and snapping pics that we missed their photo op in front of the fire.

Special thanks to E and C for hosting such a fun gathering.  I'm looking forwrad to the next themed occasion.

I hope you all have a chance to attend or host a dinner party yourselves; it's such a great way to catch up and enjoy each other's company.

***Photo credit to Carla O'Brien***

Birthday Countdown:  15 days- woo hoo!

-w