Sleepover, v. 1.0

Last Saturday night I had a few friends over for dinner, games, drinks, and a sleepover sans kiddies. Most of my girlfriends have little children, and the rules in Japan forbid ANY alcohol before driving (even a sip), so most of us had never had a glass of wine together before. So the men took the little ones for a night, and I got to work.
Of course I had a lot of cleaning up to do, given my housekeeping deficiencies. But the food was the fun part, always the food! I made Nadine's famous smoked salmon cheese ball, broccoli-stuffed mushroom caps, a plate of crudite and some chips and salsa. My dear friends Kelsey, Beth, and Andi (yes, we all have blogs) came over at six o'clock for the festivities. It wasn't long before we were in pajamas. And not long after that until we were cracking up!Beth (that's the one in the black) brought chocolate fondue and stuff for dippin,' which was a big hit.
In the middle of stuffing our faces, we added essential oils to homemade sugar scrubs, each with our own custom scent. After the wine came out in earnest, though, it was all games. We played Taboo and MarioKart Wii, then said an early goodbye to Kelsey (in the purple - that's why she wasn't in PJs), who had to get up at 4:00 for a tour of Mt. Fuji the next morning. Andi (in the grey shirt), Beth and I watched some DVDs and laughed a lot more before we finally went to bed around 1:00am.

I wish I had some funny photos of the three of us the next morning, all bleary-eyed and fixated on our coffee. I'd made Jacked-up Banana Bread from my favorite blog, Smitten Kitchen, the day before, so breakfast was a cinch.

And then, all too soon, it was over! We had to hurry out of the house so one of the mamas could tend to a minor emergency at home, and I came home, wrote a paragraph here, and KONKED OUT for about three hours. Now I know why housewives entertain so much - it is FUN, and really fills the hours! I'd have that crew over again next Saturday night if we didn't all have families to tend to. Everybody pitched in for the good times, and I had a blast. Next time, charades!