The other McAfee's dinner par-tay

Daniel & Alicia have a fancy pants dinner party around Christmas.  We made the cut a few years ago & snagged an invite.  This year when Alicia sent out the evite - there was a twist:

Ugly Sweaters.  Wha?

We all know I hate playing dress up.  I have no creativity.  But I knew just where to find some ugly sweaters...

The pic below is circa 1981.  It shows dad, Butterfly, mom & cutsie little me in a family pic.  Of course, Butterfly & my clothes are hideous...but look at my parents sweaters.  Ugly?  I think so...

 So I asked mom if she had any ugly sweaters we could borrow.  (Knowing full well the answer was going to be 'yes'.)  I specifically asked for the above sweaters.  I knew she'd have them in a box in the basement or attic.  I just know my mom.  And she totally came through!  When she gave them to me I was uber excited.  And then I had to hear from mom AND dad, "Those aren't ugly.  Those are very nice sweaters."   Really?  They're almost as old as me...

And here we are circa 2011 rocking out the thick, itchy, ugly sweaters.  I'm still the cutsie little gal on the right...some things never change...

 Daniel was cutting up one of the 12 (!) roasts Alicia made.  I love the 'muscle shirt' style vest. 

 Janelle & Denise were having a tough time mixing the salad.  Do you see a pattern here about food?  Look at that bowl of salad.  Alicia had so.much.food! 

 She changed it up a bit & this year instead of one big long table...

 she had 2 extra tables on the other side of the basement.  I can only assume that these tables were for the trouble makers...because we were assigned to the table in the corner with the Ellnors.

 We each had a family ornament to take home.  The troublemakers tried to figure out if these were edible.  Doesn't it look good enough to eat?  By the way...totallly not edible...

 Daniel was so kind as to have Christmas music playing/blaring in the background.  Sigh...

 I tried to plug my ears but he wanted me to enjoy the music & he even sang along...

 The boys...

Next it was time for the boys to take OUR picture.  This was quite the scene.  Guys just don't appreciate the art of taking pictures.  They were paying more attention to themselves than us.  You can see Daniel yelling at us here.  I'm not sure why?  WE weren't the problem...

He finally got his act together & even had 2 cameras...

   I'm a little disappointed I didn't get some closer pics of these sweaters.  There were some ugly ones for sure...

  Like I said, those 1981 sweaters were hot & itchy.  After the group pic B-rad was ready to get that thing off!  Daniel was glad to help.  (See what I have to put up with?!)

 Most of the couples there were also teachers with Alicia & I think all of them but me have kids.  I am not a teacher nor do I have kids so I kinda don't have anything to add.  So I stand politely & listen to conversations... about kids... & school.  Denise looked over & laughed at me because she said she could tell what the conversation was about 'just by the generic smile on my face.'   I said, "yea, I have a fake laugh too...I haven't had to break that out yet..."

After dinner (& a few drinks) we were ready for dessert.  Alicia had a great idea, 'just bring the whole pie over with a bunch of spoons.  That way we don't have to cut it.'  Genius!

Thanks again, other McAfee's, for having us & for dinner & drinks.  Always a fun time!