This was my living room last night.

It was lovely and warm and glowy, and it even SMELLED good, thanks to the cider simmering on the stove.

It was Catherine’s 26th birthday get-together, and the girls were in the house.

(There would have been boys, too, but there was some sort of weird husband-to-husband mental conspiracy that made them decide this was a “girl party”, and they opted to stay home.

What? Girl party? Is this the fourth grade?

No, wait. In the fourth grade, all the boys WANTED to come to our parties.

I think it’s a husband thing. Glad I don’t have one of THOSE.)

Our numbers were not massive — given the 1,007 other obligations people seem to have right around this time of year — but that was perfect. Sure, we had too much food, but we got to connect with our dear friends and catch up on the details of our lives in a more intimate setting.

(Not sure what’s up with Ash’s facial expression here.)

Oh, and we played a game.

Because Catherine? LOVES GAMES.

We weren’t going to play a game.

This was UNACCEPTABLE.

So we did. Almost at the end of the whole evening, when you might have thought things were winding down.

Nope. Not with us, no way.

We played a game called “Taboo”, in which you have to get your partner to say a certain word without using any of the words the game deems too easy a suggestion.

Say the word was “Monkey”. The game would refuse to let you use words like “Curious George” or “Jungle” or “Ape” or “Zoo” or “Back”.

Someone watches you while you have a minute to get your partner to guess as many words as possible, and if you use a verboten term, you lose a point. Usually there’s a little buzzer for them to press, but that was broken. So we’d just shout some sort of annoying noise like “EHHHHHT!”

Here’s Ashleigh “EHHHHT”ing Kristy:

I was paired with Ashleigh, and Kristy and Catherine went together, since it worked well with our seating, AND we were the least likely pairs to have some sort of weird internal language that would allow us to communicate the word telepathically.

I swear Ash could see into my brain a couple times ANYHOW, which is why we won. (YES! I’m competitive, so sue me.) I don’t know how people play those games WITHOUT their friends, though, because we always ended up speaking in shorthand.

BUT. Oh. My. Gosh.

I laughed so hard and for so long, I thought I was either going to rupture one of my internal organs or pee on the couch.

You know that kind of laughter that is SO strong that you start to cease to make any noise but a really little squeak and your belly begins to cramp?

Let’s just say that there were four of us doubled over and begging for everyone else to stop being funny because it HURT.

I can’t even remember at this point what was so damn funny, except that I can’t get the “Fiiiish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar!” song out of my head, and I know there was something about British people and private parts.

Brilliant.

We enjoyed ourselves more than I can even tell you, AND we have snacks left over (which I don’t mind A BIT.)

How blessed are we to have such funny and amazing friends? And bowls full of salty things to eat? And weird games to make us laugh until we clutch our sides?

The answer? VERY.

And happy birthday again to my amazing friend Catherine, who deserves a million parties and a million presents and a whole life of goodness.

I’ll do what I can to make it happen.