Valentine's Day Celebration: Attempt #2

This could have an alternate title:

Sometimes You Need to Throw a Party Just Cuz

On Saturday, February 2oth, Brent and I hosted a party at our apartment. We invited Harrison and Vika (and Ksu, as she is a packaged deal with the other two), Ben and Masha, and Hunter. Originally I had planned and advertised this gathering as a Valentine's Day party, but because people were not in town on Valentine's Day weekend AND Hunter was spreading rumors that he wasn't going to come because he didn't have a date, I went about advertising it as simply a "party."

A party complete with spaghetti & meatballs, a rip-roarin' game of Monopoly, and haikus.

Each and every guest was required to prepare and recite a haiku dedicated to that special someone in their lives...or to my cat, Pdub, if that special someone hadn't quite revealed themselves yet. I had anointed each place setting at the dinner table with a well decorated card with space on which a haiku could be written, and before we said grace we all recorded our haikus on the cards so that we could recite from them. We started with the couple who had been married the longest, and we made our way down to Hunter. I wish I could record everyone's haikus here for you all, because they are all sweet, endearing, random and funny in their own ways, but I let everyone take home their cards at the end of the night to cherish forever and ever. Here are Brent and mine, though:

To Brent:

Cozy to cuddle

Artistic in many ways

Brent has caught my heart.

To Hayley:

She does not like feet

She warms my heart with her smile

She is your sister.

Brent looked directly at Hunter as he recited his final sentence.

Brent's had the potential to be romantic, but it missed the mark at the last second. Darn.

I don't remember Hunter's haiku word for word, but it went something like this:

To Pdub:

I have been trying

To write a haiku for you

But I just cannot.

The haikus were a hit; the two other married couples had prepared many more than just one for each other...meaning either that the idea was super cool and WE'RE super cool for taking part in the haiku recital, or we're all just a bunch of nerds.

After the haikus we dove into the spaghetti and meatballs. Halfway into my plate I got a bright idea. I grabbed a piece of my spaghetti, walked over to Brent, put one end of it in his mouth and and other in mine. We slurped the piece of spaghetti until our lips met.

Harrison and Vika followed suit with many "Awww"s.

So did Ben and Masha.

Hunter stood up, grabbed a piece of spaghetti, put one end in his mouth, closed his eyes and slurped. When he got to the end of the spaghetti piece, he braced with his lips pursed and ready for a kiss, opened one eye, then snapped his finger with a shrug of his shoulder and a "Darn it! Didn't work."

I never thought I would ever, EVER, say this, but, Monopoly was a blast. It must have just been the perfect group. Wasn't boring. Produced lots of laughter. I loved everything about playing it...except for the fact that Ben and Masha, as a Monopoly team, are shrewd and merciless winners. They cleaned everybody else out of the water. Ben did most of the action, but Masha was the brains behind their win. She would give Ben her advice with an evil little whisper and Ben would act upon it...and time after time Masha's plans would come through with victory for the Llewellyns. Ugh. Brent and I didn't have a chance.

We had a delicious dessert of Reine de Saba with Glacage au Chocolat (translated: Chocolate and Almond Cake with Chocolate Butter Frosting) from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It was extremely rich, but delicious. I recommend eating it with a hot cup of tea.

Again, this post would have been much more entertaining if there were pictures to go with it (and there ARE pictures to go with it, but they are stuck on Brent's computer, which, for the time being, is out of commission). But this'll have to do for now.