Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

The Wet Potatoes Gang enjoyed our First Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party this past Friday nite.  Our friends, Beth & Paul, were the gracious hosts.  WOW!  Impressive!!  Beth did a whole tasting theme for the food! 

Ironically, the couples seemed to be coordinated in their choices of attire:

The Shoafs: Beth & Paul



The Ogles: Marcy & Chad

The Mojicas ~ Chris selected ours



We also enjoyed shots of Pink Sock Punch ~~ crazy inside joke that you do NOT want to know!!

Then we got to the eats!!  Scrumptious!  Perfect little portion sizes:  Wings with ranch & celery, bruschetta, srimp with mango salsa, hummus with pita chips, caprese salad, 2-chunk chicken skewers, chips & salsa, deviled eggs, cheese & crackers.  And that was just dinner!!!

Desserts included: cheesecake, peach & blueberry cobbler, chocolate mousse, chocolate-covered pretzels, fruit salad and a cherry-amaretto pudding.

There was SOOO much food!  We barely made a dent!

We took a small break to refresh our drinks and to vote on the Ugliest Sweater.  The first round, it was a tie between Jason and Chris!  (I voted for Jill!)  So, we had to go to a second round to decide the tiebreaker!  And the winner of the WPG First Annual Wet Potatoes Gang Ugly Christmas Sweater Party:

Chris took home the trophy, a Christmas Mr. Potato Head (b/c our name is the Wet Potato Gang) and a can of Spotted Dick!  The Mr. Potato Head will be a traveling trophy and must go to next year's winner.  The Spotted Dick, however, is Chris's to keep (or regift as he sees fit!!!).  Apparently, Beth & Paul are known for giving Spotted Dick!  Jill has a can, too!  HeeHee!  

The party continued with gifts.  We brought gift certificates to a local bakery, Designer Desserts, for the ladies and a small box of chocolates for the guys.  We also gave a small hostess gift to Beth (Parisian-themed notecards in a decorative box wrapped with a fleur-de-lis).  As a group, we did the White Elephant ~or as we dubbed it, The Pink Sock~ gift exchange!!!  We drew numbers (1-9).  Number One had to pick a wrapped gift, Number Two could take Number One's gift or an unwrapped one...and so on.  Would you believe Chris's luck?  Not only did he win for ugliest sweater, but he drew Number 9 ~~ meaning he got to be the last to pick and could steal any of the already opened gifts or take the last remaining wrapped one.

Our gifts for the game were The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book  and a remote-control helicopter.  (Can you guess which one of us picked out which gift?!)  My gift was picked by Jason, who had Number Two, and Chris's by Chad, who had Number Three. 

Chris's plan was to steal back the helicopter b/c he has been wanting one forever (tries to tell me that it would be so much fun for Luna...).  However, his plan was foiled when Chad stated that he couldn't wait to enjoy the helicopter with their daughter, Shae. 

There were only a couple steals:  Paul took Caroline's $15 gift card to Lover's Lane (she said there was no way she could go in the store.  THAT surprises the hell out of me!) and Chris took Jill's skull & crossbones flask with 3 mini drink bottles. 

I was Number Seven and thought of stealing Marcy's champagne drink mixers, a book about the word f*ck and a moustache ring that doubled as a can opener.  Instead, I took an unwrapped gift and got a classy Christmas CD with songs sung by Ella Fitzerald, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and the like.

And as a going-away (eventually) gift from the Shoafs, Chris & I received this...

...the most awesome caricature of Beth & Paul.  Don't ya think???  Again, this is another "gift" that they pass around!!!  We were the lucky recipients for this particular celebration!  I lovingly held it for what seemed like hours!!! 



General chatter ensued and then we passed around a book from the game What The F*ck and asked questions of each other.  Pretty funny!!!  

Eventually, we found ourselves back around the food tables.  But we left so much ~~ it was sad!  Definitely would have gone for more of it both Saturday & Sunday!  

Our biggest thanx to Beth & Paul!  We LOVE spending time with this crazy group of friends!  It is THE way to kick off our holiday season!