Mardi Gras Mayhem

On Friday night we hosted the January Refuge Group over at our house. Since Mardi Gras is next week we thought it would be fun to celebrate a little.
The theme was tacky as traditional Mardi Gras calls for. We draped the house in green, purple, & gold and we all wore beads. Chef Penn cooked us up some Creole Cuisine including~Red Beans and Rice, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya and I even helped out by stirring up a pot of good 'ole shrimp and chicken Gumbo. My mom sent over a couple of specialty King Cakes from Jay's Donuts in Baton Rouge in our favorite flavors~Bananas Foster and Praline. SO YUM!(Especially if you heat it in the microwave with a big glass of milk!) She also sent a huge bag of beads caught by my brother from parades past. The beads arrived a little late because the UPS man shook the box and sent it back to BR because he said it sounded like broken glass~what a genius! So...my mom had to resend them and they didn't even arrive until after the party had already started. It was all good though!
We all had some nice fellowship and lots of food.
After dinner, we let John Q be the king of the ball since it was his b-day on Sunday. We gave him some king cake with a candle in it and we all sang Happy Birthday. He then led us in a second line throughout the house.
To follow our tacky them...we also had our 2nd annual regift exchange. It is kind of like dirty Santa, but everyone brings a previously received gift that is in need of a new home. It was pretty hysterical. I stole this little treasure from Kimmy. It recites one of the 10 commandments every hour on the hour. The voice is quite scary~it kind of sounds like Moses. Everyone thought it would be fun to hide it in Jeff's office, so hopefully we can sneak it in there in the next few weeks. So funny!
But the best gift of all, was brought by Nancy and the birthday boy received it quite well. It was the most humongous pair of panties that you have ever seen, some orange slices, and a dollar.(Ask Nancy about the orgin of the gift!) I am not quite sure where you would get these from~let alone find a human large enough to wear them, but they must exist for some reason!!! And wouldn't you know it~little tiny Ashley stole them to have as her own. I am sure that Brad is totally thrilled about that! ;-)
Anyway, it was a good time had by all and my house surely did look like Mardi Gras Mayhem when everybody left. Thank heavens for my sweet hubby who is such a help at cleaning!