Purses and the TRUE meaning of Christmas!

Last weekend my childhood girlfriends and I gathered together for our annual Girls' Christmas Party at mine and Bess's apartment here in Birmingham. Bess and I are fully decorated and have a tree, a wreath on our door, and a garland wrapped doorway adorned with Bess's handmade bows (which are quite impressive). There are Santas and Snowmen sprinkled through out the house and the play list you see here was playing in the background. It was a very festive atmosphere only made better by the arrival of all the girls and of course, appetizers!

We always play Dirty Santa and this year, Jessica suggested that we have a purse theme. I believe that this was because Jessica herself badly needed a new purse, but I love purses and it is usually the gift I bring anyway! This group of girls tend to be very vindictive and sneaky during Dirty Santa. We allow a gift to be stolen only twice and then it is frozen, meaning the gift is irrevocably yours. One must develop thick skin to play this game. I learned the hard way early on in the game when Brittany stole the beautiful brown purse from Hayden I had opened. It was a large, roomy tote. I pointed out to Brittany, who is hard pressed to even carry a purse (the one she does carry, I gave her), that she didn't even have enough stuff to put in it. She then proceeded to talk to me like a gangster the rest of the night. It was strange and I do not know what brought that on, must have been the Tootsie Pop drink she had.

*SIDENOTE: The Tootsie Pop drink should never be repeated. It was a slight miscommunication between John and Brittany on how to correctly prepare a festive holiday drink.

Deidra opened Kaci's black clutch and it was love at first sight for her. Dee and Brittany were sitting together in my big chair and I spotted them whispering. I don't remember the exact order of events, but Dee stole Britt's purse, freezing it. However, they swapped their frozen purses voluntarily, with the end result being that they had the purse they wanted. It was very sneaky and I was very upset, because it was the purse I wanted!

The game progressed and there was only one package left unopened (a lot of stealing had gone on) and it was Deidra's. Kaci opened Dee's gift only to find that it was (GASP!) a courdoroy/flower/patchwork quilt purse. Everyone is staring in shock at the ugliness before them! All the other purses were made of a rich leather or patent leather and very cute and in style. I remember thinking..Oh my god! Kaci was trying to look pleased, but failing miserably, and Bess was screaming "Flower Power, baby!" Well, everyone is scrambling to change the rules and allow more stealing...this purse made a lap around the room with everyone screaming and throwing it (I had a brief thought that Dee was probably having her feelings hurt) and finally the purse ended in Hayden's lap. Horrified, Hayden threw it in the floor and crossed her arms in the ultimate pout. I was just thinking how glad I was that had Bess's cute mustard colored purse in my lap! Dee jumps out, tells everyone it was a joke and calls Hayden a baby, and then produces a second wrapped gift which contained a very cute Nine West purse.

Everyone lost it! We were all relieved that we had been justified in acting like hateful, spoiled brats. Dee said it was a test of everyone's character and that we were all shallow :) NO, Dee, that purse was just ugly! Haha! Then we concluded that there was a lesson to be learned here:

Christmas is about GIVING, not RECEIVING, and we should be thankful for whatever we get. In the end, it is not about the presents but the good times shared with friends and loved ones. It is Jesus's birthday! Yes, we also have a Nativity scene at the apartment that was mine when I was little.

THANK YOU DEIDRA FOR REMINDING US OF THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS!!!

(Dee has a history of being a prankster though, two years ago she brought a male blow up doll that didn't have on clothes as her gift. His name is Peter and he was the only boy that got to go on Brittany's Bachlorette party. We buckled him in a seat belt on the drive up. That is another story for another day).

In conclusion, we girls gossiped about love, life, and boys over Rotel dip, BBQ weenies, and strawberry cake. We got plenty of life tips from one another to carry over into the New Year :) The party moved to Twist and Shout, the piano bar downtown, where we Scream Singed all night long. (Scream Singing: Action verb that means to yell loudly to songs completely out of tune. Scream Singing produces feelings of extreme satisfaction in one's self). I think I should also point out, for future reference, that the center sitting area of Twist and Shout is raised about three inches from the rest of the floor.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!