So straight from my visit to the hospital in Burnsville, I headed west on 42 towards scenic Savage. A contractor that I work with was holding a Christmas party at his house. I stopped in and knew just under two people there. Call it one-and-a-half. I knew the contractor, of course, and I had met one of his workers a couple of times on a job site. Basically it was a nightmare situation for this introvert.

Unfortunately the host knew everyone at the party and he had many other much more important people (paying customers instead of a cabinet maker) to talk to. Alas. I did talk to the worker I knew for a bit until his father showed up and took him away for a chat. I wandered around the house with a Samuel Adams in my hand, admiring pictures and other knick-knacks on the walls. I also ate a few crackers. There was tons of tasty food but no one was eating anything. I’m not usually shy about being the first to eat but I didn’t feel like being the loner wandering around the party with a turkey croissant sandwich and meatballs. I was the weird loner with just a beer in his hand.

After wandering and looking at everything on the walls twice the worker introduced me to his dad and I had a nice chat with him for a little while. Before long though, he took his leave and I was left to wander again. This time I went for the food table and had a couple of tasty sandwiches and a bunch of meatballs. Mmmm.

After wandering around for a while with a plate of food and a beer a coworker of mine showed up with his wife. Hooray! Someone I knew. I chatted with them for a little while before I had to leave for my second party of the night.

The second party was in St. Paul and it was a little more my style. A few people I didn’t know. A bunch of people I did know.

There was wine and beer and fondue (and about a 1/3 of a large bottle of 100 proof Southern Comfort for me). I had always thought of fondue as just hot cheese for dipping. But they had oil in fondue pots to fry up little pieces of meat or vegetables. They also had hot cheese. And later in the evening they even brought out hot chocolate in fondue pots. That was tasty.

Here is Jim and Katie trying a lovely fried vegetable of some sort. I have to say, I was very impressed by Katie’s tongue. To say that it is Gene Simmons-like is not far off, I think.

Here Abby is showing me some proper broomball spearing technique. Thankfully she’s going to be on my team later this winter.

The wine was flowing. The ladies were happy.

Next bottle please!

It was not long after the last couple of pictures were taken that hilarity started to ensue.

Here was a nice picture of Suzanne and Jim. (awww!) And then there’s Katie doing her pirate impersonation.

And it is Christmas season. So inevitably someone thought it would be a good idea for Suzanne to wear a big ball ornament as an earing. And of course, Suzanne didn’t think the idea was so bad either. (Good luck with that Senatorial campaign!)

People! When will you learn? Friends don’t let friend drink and edit photos and then set them as the background of your other friend’s computer screen.

Anyway. It was a good night. A great time was had by all.