Small Birthday Celebration

Far be it from ME to let a birthday pass uncelebrated, right?  Since NEXT year is a "biggie", this year I wanted to do something smaller, so Andrew offered to cook for a "Girls' Night In".  I invited assorted friends, told them to grab their Thanksgiving leftovers and any crafting they wanted to work on, and come on over.

It was a very low-key, no agenda night, but I had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures!  Here are the few taken by others:

In the Evite for the party, I said that I wanted to celebrate my friendships, so I thought that, hobbit-like, I should have gifts for everyone who attended.  Of course, I didn't think of this until too late to get it together, so I settled on putting each woman's name in a bowl and having Thing One pull a name for the last of the pashminas we bought in Singapore.  The winner?  Miss Kalendar (Erin)!  This tickled me because more than once I had thought about giving her the shawl, but had decided against it.  Clearly, it was meant for her, LOL.

Bonus:  Our pal Clairese couldn't remember how to cast on, so she brought her yarn and needles, and Miss Kalendar sat down with her to teach her how.  WOOT!  Enabling!  (Hmmm...how much yarn from my stash to give Clairese for Christmas?)