In winter, we like to hunker down and simply enjoy a cozy ‘family’ weekend…. Sometimes, however,it’s really nice to have friends over. My daughter had suggested we have a card party weeks ago. She’s eight and loves parties! She even suggested certain snacks to serve. The wheels simply fell off a couple times, but finally, I planned just far enough ahead and made the call to a couple around the corner. “Bring the boys too.” Fine! A time was agreed upon.

We ate supper, tidied the house, and put together a box of toys for the littlest boy. Hubby got the dog walked and returned just as our friends were squeezing into the house. Seven pairs of feet! Thankfully the dog doesn’t have footwear, but her paws needed wiping. She also needed to go directly into her cage for the evening. Not what a lab wants to do when it sees people, especially kids, however. She’s just too enthusiastic with her greetings, and she eats toy cars and puzzle pieces.

The four of us ‘grown ups’ sat around the kitchen table gabbing long before the cards came out. (Delay the inevitable butt-kicking, I thought!) The kids got busy doing their stuff near-by, all of it noisily! Dogzilla occasionally let us know her status with a mournful moan…

Then the cards came out. There’s a good reason why the game’s called Euchre! It showed that I hadn’t played for a long while, (or that maybe I should slow down on the beer consumption). I did not grow up playing the game despite my Ontario roots. My parents had absolutely welcomed my Ontario-born-and-raised boyfriend many years ago. His Euchre-playing was on the top of their compatibility checklist! The four us us spent hours wearing the crowns off the kings. I even stopped a lone hand with ‘no ace, no face, no trump’ once or twice,….against dear hubby.

I won’t say how badly we played. I’ll blame the cards! Always blame the cards… Point is, it’s a lot of laughs and doesn’t cost anything either. No baby-sitter fees, no cab fare or line-ups to get into a show… The little guy stayed busy with cars and puzzles while our daughter kicked teen boy’s butt on Wii, bowling… Who knew that 3 strikes in a row is called a ‘Turkey’?! We thought he’d programmed that in to tease her! There will be a grunge match or two yet… (cards and Wii).

Sometime in the middle of the laughs and squeals our girl requested the ‘Seven Layer Dip’ that a) I didn’t make afterall, and b) didn’t have the ingredients for though we all had been in the grocery store that day planning party snacks. I had barely scrounged up 4 cans of pop! Ooops. Well, I thought I’d had it all planned out… There and then Martha Stewart would’ve juiced the entire contents of her refrigerator and poured it into matching sangria glasses with paper umbrellas. The pulp she would have sculpted into individual pates… I offered tea and popcorn. Really didn’t matter, we had a great time. But maybe next time we’ll play UNO! I’m fairly sure they’ll come back. And that’s a good  thing!

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