Mojitos, munchies and Settlers....

oh my!

We had another of our "game nights" last night and wowie, was it fun. We invited our friends Carlos and Jen, frequent fliers in our party circle, and one of Joe's colleagues and her family. Her teens and our teens get along and her 7yo comes along for the ride. The "kids" played Wii and watched movies while the "big kids" played Settlers of Cataan (a board game) and drank mojitos (recipe to follow). The drinks greatly enhanced the game playing as the "big kids" got pretty silly. Each couple had a "designated driver" that cut off drinking early so that the other could continue to imbibe and get sillier.

Joe won the game (as often happens, he's really good) but it was pretty close. It's a lot more fun that way. When there is a blow-out game, it's not fun for the "losers' (as often happens, me). Settlers with six people is a very different game than with four (our more familiar number of players). We'll have to keep it in mind for the next time we need a six player game. Hardly any games work with odd numbers or with more than six.

The last game night was so well attended (over-invited?) that we had to split into two groups, in different rooms. That wasn't as much fun as one room was clearly having more fun....and i was in the other room. So, i could hear the fun but was involved in a game with one less-than-enthusiastic couple and the reluctant spouses of the "fun gamers". Ick. None of the couples from that room were on the guest list for last night's shindig. :o(

Every time that we have one of these get-togethers at the house, we swear ahead of time never to do it again. Too much work. Too expensive. Too much of a bother. Then, people arrive, settle in, we start socializing and having fun.....then they go home... and we turn to each other and start talking about "next time, we should do this... and have these people.... and serve this...And the cycle starts all over again. :o) We forget how fun it is before the next one and are again grousing about the guest list and the added bother of having everyone here (clean the house, stay home, cook/prepare drinks, etc, etc). Secretly, i think that Joe just goes along with it because he knows that the house will look "fantabulous" and decluttered the day of the event. It's not jus a social event-- it's an occasion to de-stuff our house (or at least the ground floor) and pitch crap wholesale. We should do that more often...

Off to enjoy our decluttered and quiet house (sleeting outside, see earlier post). It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....