Margie"s Christmas Brunch Party

Sunday was a lovely, bright and sunny day for Margie's annual Christmas Brunch Party. Bill accompanied me and once again I lucked out on parking as I drove around the streets close to her house, I found a parking space about to be vacated. Parking is always difficult around here but Stuart seems to always turn up trumps.
The party was in full swing when we arrived, music playing with folks drinking, munching and chatting.

Our gang hung outside for a while making the most of this unseasonally good weather, while chattering sparrows perched in the trees above us and a puffed up dove snoozed on a balcony in the next yard.

All of Margie's stuffed critters were decorated for Christmas and appeared to be as happy as the guests. Margie's parties are always fun. The house is always so gaily colored and packed with decorations that even Scrooge would have had a hard time muttering, "Bah Humbug" here.

We went outside to help Emily find another parking space since she was in a 2 hour spot, and discovered a cardboard box on the wall that Margie must have placed outside, with a 'FREE' sign leaning against it. There were strings of plastic pearls inside and a Santa hat so we set about stringing them onto the little tree outside Margie's house which we felt looked a little bare with just some pink lights strung across it. The Santa hat went on her plastic deer.

This was hanging on a neighbor of Margie's door, it seriously has to be the most horrendously tacky wreath I've ever seen and had to be regarded in awe at managing to be so ghastly that all we could do was stand and stare in horror.

Back indoors we discovered that unfortunately the alcoholic punch had been sucked down quickly and people were looking longingly at the bottom of the empty bowl, so Margie set to work on replenishing it. She pulled a huge frozen chunk of banana, pineapple, mango and other fruits from the freezer and to our immense amusement started sawing it into pieces with a kitchen knife. We placed a sign by the bowl and continued to watch as rum, brandy, Sunny D orange, and I've forgotten what else, was poured into the bowl so that the chunks of frozen fruit floated like icebergs in what now resembled a sea of vomit.

A few cranberries were tossed in as a garnish and immediately we had a volunteer to try out the concoction. It was a success!

With the emergency situation turned about Margie could now settle down to make a notable attempt at demolishing a loaf of bread stuffed with cheese, onion and other things that looked a bit like what went into the punch bowl but which also tasted equally awesome. I managed to snatch a few bites.

Margie's cute little courtyard at dusk...

...and her little tree out front, looking resplendent with its pink lights and pearls. As the afternoon ebbed into the evening, folks started disappearing, to other events or like me, to mentally prepare for the work week ahead, which takes an awful lot of preparation. I wish every day was a weekend!