Whee!

Since we are rather boring individuals, we don't do the wild drunken party thing on New Years. Our first married celebration was all about the board games because we are anti-social and did not choose to attend the wild drunken party we were invited to. (We did receive a wild drunken phone call from that event. It was.. well, it was "what the heck am I supposed to talk about with someone who is so drunk they don't remember that it is three am?" fun.) Anyway, some friends (primarily of my parents) host a Rook tournament in Morehead, approximately fifteen seconds from my parents house, and we generally go. That's where we were off to this weekend. My parents drove down to Frankfort to pick me up (with my niece and cousin Rae) and M drove to Morehead directly from work so we would both be there in time for the tournament and for today's dinner.

We went to this tournament last year and lost pretty quickly. We really didn't expect anything else because a) there are about a dozen teams competing b) some of the competitors are very very serious about playing to win and c) they play with different rules than we usually do. That last one is a big one because their rule variation, albeit a minor one, allows you to have more control of the game, which changes the strategy significantly. Even though we never really have a chance, we always go because several family members and friends are there, and even if most of the people are people that we don't really know all that well, it's a nice chance to get out of the house and play cards and talk and eat. (This year there was a ham that M found quite happily similar to a Swedish Christmas ham, so there was a bit of excitement for the boy on that front.)

I'm building this up too much. You already know what I'm going to say, don't you?

WE WON! We won we won we won! For real!

Okay, so technically, we won second place, or if you're the cynical type who likes to step on all my hopes and dreams you can just go ahead and call us the number one losers. But since we made it to the final round, I think we won. We even started at a disadvantage because of how the bracket was set up.. we had to play one game just to get even with everyone else (as opposed to last year, when we were also the odd team out and got to skip the first round.). It was completely weird.. we've never even made it past our first game before! This time we were just flying through. Actually, we won eleven games in a row, which no one else in the entire tournament could possibly say. You play for the best three out of five, and we did not lose a single game until the last round. (Except in our first round, we played 2/3 because that's what we thought it was, and so did our opponent.) By the time we left, it was almost three in the morning, and we had won $120 and two pocket knives, as well as an Advent Santa doll thing (door prize.) $120! For playing a card game that I love anyway! We're still not over the shock of it all. Really can't believe we won anything since we just go for the fun of it and not because of the winning. I almost suggested skipping it this year because it seemed like such a hassle, and a waste of an entire day, just to go lose at cards. Sure glad that we didn't! :)

Anyway, that was the biggest excitement of the new year thus far. Today was nice in that family dinner sort of way.. ate too much, laughed a lot and played with Elizabeth, who thinks I'm hilarious.. but no one gave us $120 just for showing up so it just can't surpass the rook tournament quite yet. ;) I have some New Years ruminations but I'll save them for tomorrow. I'm too tired to be thoughtful just yet.

Happy Merry New Year's to all my friends! (And happy birthday to ozswede!)