Friday, November 17th
I originally wanted to have a birthday party the weekend before, during my actual birthday, but my Mom was in Ecuador and Nicole and Del were in Hawaii. So, we had to save it for the next weekend. I planned on having a family get together on Friday and let people know what time and what we were having. I had everyone bring their own drinks. The next day was our taco game night with friends since we've been putting it off for months.
I spent most of my day working wishing I had the day off. It was a pretty average Friday for the most part. I got most of my stuff done and was able to do a few things that afternoon. I had put up the shark decorations, I bought on Amazon, on the ceiling and walls. I got a few things put away, vacuumed the house in sections as I got phone calls and since Doug was home on (LWOP), I had him clean his bathroom and the dog area in the dining room. Of course, I got grief from him. It happened every time I asked him to help out. It was getting super old. His behavior was getting bad again and we all knew his time at the state was going to come to an end. It was a matter of time.
Ben had spent the prior week getting together a shark themed Jeopardy game and even had a prize for the winner. I thought he did a pretty good job for the first time putting one together. I had borrowed Erika and Zac's air fryer, so we had the extra one going when we started cooking food. I made the shark cupcakes the night before, so they were ready to go due to the lack of time on Friday. They were Funfetti with shark sprinkles.
For many years, we had gone to Buffalo Wild Wings for my birthday but decided not to go this year because it gets harder and harder to bring 15 or more people to the restaurant each time. Instead, Ben said, oh...we should make wings and fries here. So, I bought the fries and some of the wings, Heather and Josh provided a bag or two of wings from Costco, which was really nice of them. Little did we know, it would be a lot of work to cook all of the stuff at the same time without a large fryer and we should have started sooner too. Oh well, we live, and we learn.
Josh and Heather got there before everyone else did and like I said earlier, we should have started cooking the wings earlier. Everyone arrived by 6 p.m. but had to wait for the food to get done. I had three air fryers going and two sheet pans full of fries cooking in the oven. I could tell everyone was getting bored and we tried reassuring them that it would be done soon.
I was in the kitchen with Josh and Ben feverishly trying to get the food done so we could sit and eat it. Once everything was finally done, we had everyone come in and get some food. There was definitely plenty of it and everyone finished it off. We had no leftovers which is a win because now we don't have to store it. We ate, chatted and enjoyed the food.
Trish asked me why I wasn't wearing my shark costume, and I told her that it was so busy, that I had totally forgotten about it. I went and grabbed it from the extra closet and put it on.
We cleared the plates and got ready for shark Jeopardy. Ben put a lot of work into it and made some of the questions really hard. I don't think very many people got them right. Haha. We still had fun though. The shark cupcakes came out on the cupcake tree, people sang Happy Birthday, and I blew out the candles that sat on top of the pyramid of cupcakes that said 40. I still couldn't believe I was 40. Where does the time go? Seriously?
I got a few birthday presents, one being a cover for my Kitchen Aid, and thanked everyone for coming. I knew people were getting tired and wanted to head home after a long day at work, especially Heather and Mom, who both get up at like 4:30 and Trish and company who live an hour away. Everyone left and Ben and I spent some time cleaning up. We left the tables and chairs up since we were hosting taco game night the next day.
Like always, we stayed up too late.
Saturday, November 18th
I had gotten the word out at the beginning of November, letting our friends know that Ben and I could host Friendsgiving/game night in mid-November. Everyone agreed that it would work for them and so, I took initiative to delegate items. If I didn't something would be left out or brought twice. I let them know that Ben and I would be responsible for the turkey meat (it's Friendsgiving, can't forget the turkey), the seasoning, the tortillas, guacamole and sour cream. I assigned Justin and Lindsay the shredded cheese, Megan would bring the tortilla chips and salsa, Celeste and Isaac were to bring the lettuce, cilantro and diced tomatoes and Nicole and Del the beans and rice. Everyone seemed to be okay with it.
Also, Erika and Sonya put together a brunch of just us girls, which included them, Mom and me. Sonya wanted to get to know us better over some food. We all agreed and decided to meet up around 10:00 a.m. at Medicine Creek Cafe. It was down in Nisqually. Nobody except Sonya has been there before. I made sure to bring some notes with me just in case the items listed came up in conversation.
I left the house around 9:45 and literally got there just as the clock hit 10. I found a place to park and was like, wow, this place is busy. I hope we get a spot. I didn't realize people were already inside at a table. I joined up. We ordered drinks, I got a chocolate milk, and had some light conversation. A little while later, our waitress came back and asked about food. I ordered The Classic, which was two eggs, sausage, hash browns and toast.
I can't remember how it began but we started talking about Doug and Doug's history so Sonya could better understand the dynamics of our family and what we've had to do for him over the years. I wanted her to actually know what we've had to do to get him to where he was that day. I got the brunt of it because he was living with me in my house. I honestly thought him having a girlfriend was too soon after starting therapy and the problems he's been having at work, but what do I know? We talked about his past, his last relationship, his problems that he probably wasn't going to talk about with her. I told her that Doug is someone you need to keep reminding and keeping him on task. Erika added some stuff, Mom talked about a couple things. It seemed pleasant, but we will see what the next couple months will bring.
We stayed until about 1:00 that afternoon. We paid for our food, and we all went our separate ways. I had to hit up Walmart and Winco really quick so I could get the rest of the stuff for Friendsgiving game night. Of course, it's never a quick trip. I finally made it home around 3. I had Ben helped me unload the groceries and put them away. I took down the shark decorations and put up some Thanksgiving ones.
Megan got there early and helped me with some of the stuff. She got her food she brought all fixed up and told me she bought some Thanksgiving tablecloths. They were originally made for children to write and color on, but it was perfect for a game night with friends. She helped me put them on the tables. I made sure I got a few boxes of crayons so people could have fun with it. I started the turkey burger and that didn't take long to cook. I added my gluten free seasoning and mixed that up.
Everyone else started to arrive and I grabbed Nicole's cans of beans and put them into a pan and started warming them. She threw her rice into the microwave and headed those up. I got everything into bowls, made sure it got on the table and told everyone that the food was done. We all piled tacos and taco fixin's onto our plates.
The food was delicious. We ate, carried on, laughed, talked about random things, weddings, Del and Nicole's trip to Hawaii, the upcoming holidays, etc. People had started to get the crayons out and were drawing on the tablecloth. This is where Gina Gobbles, the stripping turkey, was born.
Nicole and Del brought their bags of games, and we looked through them and found a couple to play. One of those games was a group favorite, Telestrations, but this one was the "After Dark" version, which we haven't played that one yet, but the original one is always entertaining. The drawings and guesses are so terrible, and some are memorable for years to come!
Everyone stayed until about 11:30/midnight, unlike the last game night at Celeste and Isaac's house in October. They grabbed the stuff they came with. Lindsay handed me a birthday present and card before she, Wes and Justin went home. I thanked her for the gift. I thanked everyone for coming and Ben and I took the tables and chairs down and cleaned up the kitchen.
We went to bed shortly after.
Sunday, November 19th
It was so nice to sleep in after how busy the weekend has been thus far. A few months ago, while shopping at the Olympia Goodwill, I found a SPAM apron. Yes, I bought it knowing that Josh's birthday was coming up. it is the perfect gift for someone who grew up on Guam eating SPAM. I even paired it with a couple cans of SPAM. We were invited to come to his party at 1 p.m. in Tenino. Heather planned a Barbie themed party. I managed to find some Barbie plates and some pink table clothes. She had the idea of making a life-sized Barbie box but failed to find a box that was big enough. Then she ran out of time and got lazy. It gets to the best of us.
Ben and I got up, fed the cats, I had a small snack to tie me over until we went to the party, did a few things, got ready, made sure Josh's birthday card got filled out and we hopped into Ben's Edge. We made our way to their house in rural Tenino.
We arrived a smidgen before 1 p.m. and went into Heather's parent's house. I have not been inside the house, so Heather gave me a short tour and told me a couple stories. They had quite the spread for six people. Heather had gotten Costco sandwiches, chips and a blue and pink Barbie sheet cake and an array of drinks. I saw she put a bunch of notecards on the wall for Barbie Jeopardy. Ben and I still haven't watched the movie, so we were at a huge disadvantage.
We ate, hung out, watched Heather's Dad feed his lap and the floor, the dogs probably loved that, chatted about the upcoming holidays, wedding planning and other random things when they came up. It's been a while since we had Costco sandwiches. Heather's mom asked us to take a few sandwiches home with us.
I took a quick bathroom break because my stomach wasn't feeling very good. It was probably all the stuff I had that weekend was coming to an end. I was in there for a few minutes. Heather was really excited to start the Barbie Jeopardy. Even Heather's mom hasn't seen the movie so this should be interesting. We all managed to get a few of the questions correct but, in the end, Josh won because he saw the movie.
Josh opened his cards and presents and then we all had some Barbie cake. The themes for these parties are hilarious. We are grown adults and most of our parties in the past five or, so years have been themed. At least we have fun with it.
We thanked Heather, Josh and her parents for inviting us over. We took home some sandwiches and headed out.
We drove into Rainier to pick up a few things from my parents' house, we petted Chloe and Kirby and were there for about an hour. We drove back into Lacey and Ben decided he should get gas before we went home. He didn't want to worry about it the next day. We got home around 6 p.m., we had Doug feed the cats, we did a couple loads of laundry, hung out and got ready for the upcoming short work week.
Next Adventure: The Long Four-Day Thanksgiving Weekend
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