Mandatory Friend Christmas at A3!

So tonight was our 2nd annual "Mandatory Friend Christmas Party" at A3 (we have to make these things mandatory so certain people don't try and peace out on all the Christmas fun!) And if anyone HAD peaced out, they would surely have missed a fabulous time. The girls of A3 all gathered to cook dinner and eat together (which is something that we assumed/ claimed we would do ALL THE TIME senior year when we got a townhouse)... it was the second time we have done this. Ever. Let's just say we're not as domestic as we'd hoped. BUT our meal was fabulous... we had hot spinach dip, creamy chicken pesto with bowtie pasta, salad, and rolls! And for dessert we had red velvet whoopie pies (made by me)! A3 can definitely pull ourselves together in times like this and turn out a great meal! So we sat around, ate, and exchanged Secret Santa gifts (everyone's favorite part!) We all received Lilly items from our secret Santas, except for Nancy, who got the Glee Christmas CD (which we've all enjoyed) and coasters and a candle. Special thanks to Megan for my monogrammed Tervis and Lilly notepads!! I'd hoped to get a Christmas picture of all of us, but none of us were looking our cutest. So unfortunately there are no pictures to accompany this blog. Overall, this year was so fun and much more successful than our First Annual Mandatory Friend Christmas Party!

Just to give a little comparison, the whole reason why we had it at our townhouse instead of going out is because we can never all agree on a restaurant. In '09, we had our First Annual Mandatory Friend Christmas Party (FAMCP) at a Chinese restaurant in Greenville that Emily was DYING for us to go to because it was "soooooooo good!!!" Since it was a restaurant that none of us had ever been to before, except for Emily, no one could complain beforehand. All we knew was that "they have hibachi and Chinese food and it is SO cheap!" I love hibachi, and I love cheap. So we didn't need much convincing. So Emily drives us there, and when she pulled up at an old Ryan's-turned-Chinese-buffet, I knew we were in trouble. We all went in and paid our like $8 or whatever, and we were overwhelmed by the massive amounts of Chinese food, hibachi items, sushi, ice cream, and rando assorted desserts. Oh, and rolls. Luckily, when Ryan's closed, they must have left the rolls behind, because this Chinese restaurant was well-stocked! ANYWAY, so Emily and Megan loved it, and Nancy and I did not. We did like the rolls, and that was like all we ate. (Now you're seeing why we had to make FAMCP "mandatory") SO after we did the gifts, Nancy decided that we should take some of the rolls with us. So we got 2 plates full of rolls and sneakily put them in our gift bags when the little waitresses weren't looking. Because if you took any food with you, like in a to-go box or whatever, you had to pay 8 more dollars, and I was NOT about to pour any more of my money into this place. Yep, I'd say that this was the low point of my junior year... stealing Ryan's rolls from the Chinese buffet. So, after the fiasco that was FAMCP, we couldn't all agree on a restaurant to go to this year.

I'll leave you with this:

Our one picture from the night (now you see why we didn't take more)... me, Nance, our matching Patagonias, and some of the messed up red velvet whoopie pies. Lots of red in this picture.

Merry Christmas from A3!