Ladies Night...A True Delight

The first Wednesday of every month 11 friends and I get together for bunco. Now I will admit when I was first asked to join this group I thought, "Isn't bunco what old ladies play together?" I really didn't know anything about it and had to give serious consideration to giving up a night a month to play this "game", before finally deciding to give it a shot. Well now, almost 2 years later, I am SO very glad and proud to be part of my bunco group.

July marks the beginning of our bunco year and the twelve of us draw for which month we will be hosting. As host it is your responsibility to have 3 tables/chairs set up with the dice, bunco cards and a scorepad and also to provide munchies and refreshments for everyone. The host also has the joy/burden of selecting a theme (ex. Christmas, Halloween, favorite snack food, favorite drink, warm & cozy, pajama party, etc.) for the night, on which our $5 bunco gifts are based.

This year I grabbed January and was really excited to host, selecting "gift cards" as my theme. As those closest to us know, we had a hot water slab leak in our guest bathroom shortly after Christmas and the week before I was to host these lovely ladies, a restoration company was in our house tearing out most of the floors, baseboards and dismantling both our guest and master bathrooms. Concrete floors, fans running 24/7 and no bathroom were not exactly what I had in mind to create a warm and comfortable bunco night atmosphere. Fortunately my sister-in-law Alanda agreed to switch months at the last minute with me and host January, which worked even better since she only lives 3 doors down from us which meant the location really didn't change all that much. Oh and did I mention we were not even able to live at the house and were staying at my parent's house an hour away? Or the fact that I had to miss January bunco entirely thanks to a wonderful case of strep throat? I was very sad, but alas, the show must go on and Marvina enjoyed subbing for me and the ladies had a fabulous time at Alanda's.

After the floors were all replaced, the bathrooms put back together and a new coat of paint in the kitchen and dining, I was able to host in May which was when Alanda was originally supposed to host. Considering she was 9 months pregnant in May, it worked out much better for me to host then anyway. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So this last month, June, was a bunco night to go down in history I think. When Alicia hosted last year it was a pajama party theme, which was the first time I think we "dressed up" (or down really) for the theme and came in our pajamas. It was very relaxing playing and chatting away in my comfy favorite fleece pjs. I even came away with some cute new toe nail polish and new People magazine (a guilty pleasure for me that I rarely ever indulge in) as my prize. Well this month it was a Bridesmaid theme. We were asked to dress in our favorite past bridesmaid dress or wedding dress and it made for quite a fun night!

Sadly, in the pregnancy induced have-to-clear-out-everything-and-make-room-for-baby stage before Miss Em was born, I donated all of my bridesmaid dresses from weddings I had been in. There was the champagne colored one from Jen's wedding, the periwinkle steal from Chadwick's from Kendra's wedding, the lavender one with roses on the collarbone from Alanda's wedding and possibly one other that is escaping my mind at the present time. Really, when was I going to wear these again? Of course, when I asked myself this question a year in a half ago the obvious answer should have been, "At bunco!" Fresh out of bridesmaid dresses and not willing to wear my wedding dress that is so carefully archived away in a box (and which I'm SURE I do not fit into anymore), I went to Alicia's to try on some of her dresses from years ago. Alicia is only a couple of inches taller than me so we have enjoyed sharing some clothing, especially maternity clothing. Unfortunately her true bridesmaid dresses were a tad too tight for my still-post-partum-and-nursing-chubbiness.

I came home hours before I was to go and tore apart my house trying to find that sequined junior prom dress that I also wore for the Miss Amador pageant. I was sure I hadn't gotten rid of that (although I'm not sure why I thought it would fit). I finally found it and put it on as Alicia arrived for us to carpool over together. I asked her to zip it up for me and uh, oh...oh...um...well we got it zipped! Hooray! That was until I looked in the mirror and saw my unsightly back cleavage. Uh, uh...that was NOT going to work. Glanced in my closet one more time and found a more forgiving black dress from Junior/Senior Banquet in college and out the door we went to Bridesmaid Bunco!

Here we are, with a few good-natured subs (Alanda just had baby Joshua last week ), all decked out in our bridesmaid dresses. Laura actually fit into her wedding dress, so she was our bride for the night, along with her months old son Levi. If only I still had my dress from Kendra's wedding, then I could have matched both Alicia and Jen, who were wearing their Chadwick's bridesmaid dresses from Kim's wedding. :)

Mary, Kim, Kristin, Marvina, Jen, Tracy, Laura & Levi

Tina, ME, Brandi, Jeni, Alicia

This monthly bunco has become such a fun, relaxing night out. Something I know each of us really looks forward to where we can (and do) talk about anything and everything, eat great food and enjoy some friendly (mostly friendly) competition. Oh did I mention that I was in the running for Most Buncos this month with 2 that night? Unfortunately Jen, Tina had 2 also and Tina beat us in the roll off for the title, but I guess since she was the hostess she deserved it.

I wonder what we'll have to look forward to next month...Jen mentioned having a bikini theme, but I think she may have trouble finding 11 subs since I don't think any of us are up for showing our post partum bodies quite that freely. :) I know she was joking, but still it's always fun to be thinking of the next theme...