I smiled as I walked into my parent's friend's house on New Years Eve. I said my hellos, and before I knew it, I was standing around talking with my mom and her friends.
And suddenly a feeling of sadness washed over me as I began thinking about things. For the first time in years, I wasn't spending New Years Eve with a big group of friends. It made me sad to think how things had changed so rapidly in the last few weeks.
That's when I learned an unexpected life lesson....
Everyone started gathering around the kitchen table. More chairs kept being added. All of the adults and teenagers sat down for a game of Apples to Apples - my favorite!
If you've never played Apples to Apples before, one of the biggest things in the game is being able to "read" the judge. I thought about how hard this was going to be with a group of my parent's friends.
As we start playing, I realize how wrong I was. "Reading" the judges and picking the right cards came easy, and I won the game. We start packing up the cards, when we all decide to play another game. By now, I'd forgotten about my feelings of sadness, and I realize how much fun I was having.
Now, every time a judge picked my card, everyone got mad :) The game started becoming absolutely hilarious, and I realized that I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.
Like when the category was earthy, and my dad puts down a Swiss cheese card. Everyone was laughing and having a good time, including me. I won the second game too :)
Now we decide to pack up the game for good. The dads go off to play PS3, and those of us left decide to play something else.
This time, someone picks out Quelf.
I'd never heard of the game before, but I catch on pretty quick. Before I know it, I'm laughing harder than I ever have. This game was hysterical! You have to complete what the cards say, and if you don't, you have to face a penalty.
The cards ask you to do some pretty crazy things. Our game involved....
...me slow dancing with my mom's friend...
...someone pretending to be a one-eyed mime in a box of ferrets...
...someone singing Old McDonald with verses related to all of the players...
...me running around the house in slow motion...
...my mom attempting to deliver a eulogy for a dead dog - she didn't finish though because she was laughing so hard!...
...barking at anyone who wasn't playing...
...me pointing at a wall for an entire round...
...my mom acting like she had hot lava on her...
...and so much more!
This game sounds pretty ridiculous, and that's because it is, but it was SO much fun! We all couldn't stop laughing the entire game :)
After the ball dropped, and we headed back home, I thought about the night, and how it turned out to be one of the funniest nights I've had in a really long time. I wasn't dreading the party going into it, but I definitely wasn't expecting it to be that fun.
I realized an unexpected lesson: to never judge a situation before it even happens.
I was sad about not being with my friends, but I had a night that was just as fun (maybe even more?) than my previous New Years Eves spent with my friends.
Now I've learned to go into every situation with an open mind because you never know when God will surprise you and give you something better than you could have expected.
My last post talked about change. I'm hoping to change my attitude and go into these new changes with a confident attitude, because although it isn't what I would plan for my life, it will probably turn out even better :)
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