Christmas parties are a staple of this festive time of year. Sometimes it's a work party, maybe a party with the family, but more often than not it is just a party with some friends. This year I have had the opportunity to go to two Christmas parties. Both were awesome, but in very different ways.
The first party took place in the frozen tundra that is Fishers, Indiana. My friends Sara and JC have a yearly tradition of having people over to their house. Years ago I went with a couple of other people, I remember it was fun, we played catchphrase, and my car completely spun out on 37 on the way back home. Since then I haven’t not been able to make it back, until this year.
The party was a total blast. There was a ton of great food to eat people to catch up with. Besides Sara and JC, who I always love to see, I also caught up with my friends Amanda and Phil who I haven’t seen in years, as well as Josh and Marissa whom I know from high school when they were my Young Life leaders. Along with these fine people, and other, were kids. Lots and lots of kids. I think there were a total of 12 running around1, ranging from younger than one all the way up to 8. What was great was that these were the type of kids who are totally comfortable around other people. So they were running and acting crazy like kids do. At one point a group of them crawled under the table too mess with the adults. Having never met me did not stop them from attacking my legs, or showing off their toys, or lightsaber fighting with me2. It was great fun.
When all but two of the kids went to bed I, along with some YL leaders from Indy, were talking to the 8 year old. We covered what types of pets they had and what their names were, which led up to a discussion about Scooby Doo. The highlight of the night for me was when she said, very matter-of-factly, “Max and I are so about Scooby Doo.” It was hilarious. After that the adults watched a couple of movies3, and I headed back to Bloomington. It was a great night.
The second Christmas party took place at our house last Tuesday. We had a community dinner Christmas party which included spaghetti bake, a gift exchange, and singing some carols. We got a late start eating dinner all because an AmeriCorps worker left for lunch and never came back4 which meant we were behind schedule. And as anyone who has been a part of a white elephant gift exchange
can tell you, those things can take a while. I attempted to get thing going, I passed out numbers and made sure all the gifts were out and ready. We were all set to get start when Tim Felton lets me know that he is waiting on Kevin to bring part of his gift. And so once again my life is slowed by the ridiculousness of Timothy Bernard Felton. When I announce that we can’t start because of Tim we all 
booed him, then when we guessed that he was waiting on come coffee beans to arrive (he works at a coffee shop) we booed more. Then we started booing everything that was happening. Jecca brought bad gifts to an exchange 6 years ago5? She got booed. Someone made a bad joke? Booed. Still waiting on Tim? Booed again. Basically everything was booed all night long. It was great.Despite all this it was one of the best gift exchanges that I have been a part of, almost every gift was a good one. Except the toothbrush that Frank brought. Oh well. On the opposite end of the spectrum my firends Kevin (who kind of blogs http://kevinschmalandt.blogspot.com/) and Alena (who doesn't) took it upon themselves to record their own Christmas song, complete with an auto-tuned section, you can download it here: http://tindeck.com/listen/jbmg Also, while at the party, Jecca ruined Christmas then Frank saved it, only to ruin it again moments later. So it was an eventful night. Plus, I got an Antwone Dodson apron, so you can run and tell that, run and tell that, run and tell that, home-home-homeboy.
Christmas movie number three, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. A classic in every sense of the word, if you’ve never seen this movie go track it down now. This is Chevy Chase at his best, his delivery as Clark W. Griswold is so perfect. The last true family man. Plus, you get to see Randy Quaid play a crazy man instead of actually being a crazy man. I watch this every Christmas eve with my dad and we still laugh at it every year. I’m looking forward to seeing again in a few days. I’d say more about it but I gotta run so I will just leave you with this.
Now, who wouldn’t want to come to this party?
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1 That number may not be right, but it was large enough that when Sara asked me if being there made me want to have kids I said, “No, but I am considering a vasectomy.”
2 I lost both times, dying the second.
3 The aforementioned Die Hard and Elf.
4 A long and totally true story.
5 It was the worst, she deserves to be booed every year, forever.
