The third Christmas party of the year...

We're kinda partied out, now.

But this, as last year, was the best of the the three. Totally informal, with kids running around, often bearing live rabbits (last year it was chickens, but the heeler killed most of the chickens this summer). One boy running around in his underwear 'cause he's peed his pants, and Mom thought to pack spare underwear, but no spare pants.

Yeah, a fun party.

Really.

A CD of children's choirs singing Christmas carols for background music.

For those not driving, the beverage of choice was a "Slushy". Made by mixing a bottle of bourbon with a quart of lemonade and a quart of orange juice and leaving the mixture in a sealed bucket in the freezer, stirring occasionally, until frozen into a slush. (In this case, the freezing was done way back in July.) Scoop out what you want in your glass, and fill the remainder with Sprite.

Good stuff. Goes down too easily, though.

The main course was homemade lasagna, using Mennonite noodles. Preceded by a California-style Caesar salad and both Italian and French bread.

Not surprisingly, the host couple (the folks with 4H chickens and rabbits) had never heard of, much less tried, dipping their bread in balsamic vinegar and virgin olive oil. "We just always put butter on it." But after gamely trying it out, both were satisfied. One announced "You could serve that as dessert!"

Well, maybe not in some ethnic quarters.

Besides, I made cookies.

The Californian import seemed quite pleased we brought the vinegar and oil contribution to the meal. Assume she doesn't get it often at home.

The rest of the evening, when not petting and feeding rabbits, was spent playing Pictionary. Men vs the women.

Ended up one game apiece. Seeing as how we got skunked the first game, and barely won the second, our male member who wanted to play a third tie-breaker was quickly shushed.

There is at least some modicum of honor in a tie.

We did real good on "acupuncture", though. And would have won on "Libya" and "Mecca" if some Americans weren't so ignorant on geography.