Entertaining Friday: Chinese New Year Recap

Last Friday was Jen and Bill's first annual Chinese New Year costume party - and the first in what promises to be a long year of theme parties requiring funny costumes. If I could dress up once a month, I'd be happy.

Organizing a party like this is pretty straightforward. You've got a theme, so it's easy enough to decide on the food. For a Chinese New Year party, in particular, food's easy - if you don't want to cook, all you need to do is organize some carry-out (the Wneks went to Wegmans, where you can actually order party platters of Chinese food). For snacks, Bill raided Trader Joe's, which is pretty much ethnic finger food heaven.

The focus of the party, anyway, was on the costume contest. There were two prizes up for grabs (both bottles of sake) - one for best costume and one for most original/funniest.

Guess what we won (what? Of course we won!) - most original/funniest, for our rendition of Chinese takeout boxes. In case you're wondering, I traced the little Chinese temple onto the shirts and colored them in with red sharpies. And yes, that is a coat hanger on my head - it's the box handle. Also yes, it did hurt to wear. But sometimes we have to suffer for our art.

February's theme party: wine tasting Valentine's Day at Mike and Alicia's. And yes, we're planning to win that contest, too.