Pajama Party!

We had an ulterior motive for coming to East Grand Forks Friday. Yes, it's great to see good friends at Christmastime, but last night happened to be the night of another can't-miss themed party hosted by Jay and Erin. It began at 7:30 last night and has just now ended . . . at 4:30 A.M. Sunday! That's how we roll at these get-togethers. Jay and Erin always go all out, and we don't miss a minute of it.

Some background: One summer Jay and Erin hosted a barbecue for which they set up hay bales all over their yard and ordered in the meat from their favorite barbecue joint . . . in Texas!! A couple years ago, they hosted a luau in the winter (in MN) and hauled in sand to create a beach in two stalls of their garage! Their New Year's Eve party last year required everyone attending to dress as a favorite movie character, and we entered Jay and Erin's house on a red carpet and found our names on stars on the floor à la Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA! This past spring they decorated their garage to look like a gymnasium decked out with metallic streamers and a disco ball, and they invited couples to dress in 1980s prom outfits and dance the night away! Are you surprised that we refused to miss their pajama party last night/this morning?! No, of course you're not.

Yesterday started innocently enough. Throughout the day, while all our kids played together, we helped here and there with party preparations. Jay and Erin always have everything well planned out, so there's not much for us to do, but we try. Susan worked on party favors and food indoors while I shoveled the driveway and front walk outdoors as our children went sledding across the street. We are not Jay and Erin's only house guests; Erin's sister, her husband, and their kids are staying with them over Christmas, so their kids joined ours for sledding. Jesse and Nicole hiked across the street with their kids, too, to enjoy some fun with their new sleds.

This sledding spot is directly across the street from Jay and Erin's house; the mailbox in the center of the pic is at the corner of the driveway, and the street runs left to right at the bottom of the hill, which is actually the dike (the Red River is on the other side). Yes, they're sledding down toward the street! But it's a low-traffic road, and the adults are there to call out "Car!" to alert the younguns to potential danger.

Here I am visiting with Jesse before I return to shoveling and he returns to giving kids pushes on their sleds down the hill.

Because Jesse and Nicole live just one block over, their home is the default babysitting site for every Jay-and-Erin party. We all haul our kids over there to spend the night with Elizabeth, babysitter extraordinaire. She feeds them pizza, monitors their playing, lets them watch a Disney movie, and then wrangles them all into bed by 10:30 P.M. When Jesse and Nicole return home from the party, they relieve the babysitter and then get the pleasure of being awakened in the morning by children who have had a full night's sleep (when Jesse and Nicole have had perhaps just a couple hours' worth of sleep!). See what good friends we have?!

So we got the kids over to Jesse and Nicole's, and it was time for the guests to start arriving. This party's theme: pajama party! Guests arrived clad in their pajamas (the invitation stipulated "no birthday suits") and received sleep masks as party favors. Susan, Erin, and Ali wrote sleep-related phrases on the masks ahead of time. There were adult beverages and food galore. In fact, Jay and Erin had arranged for pizzas to be delivered every hour, so there was a steady supply of hot pizza throughout the night! There was a sundae table set up in the garage across from the karaoke machine and stage, which got a lot of action throughout the night. And when people tired of singing, they'd visit while munching in the kitchen or relaxing in the living room. Jay and Erin gave out prizes for best pajamas in different categories: raciest (winner: Tammy in her red two-piece), granniest (winner: Joey in his Leave It to Beaver blue button-up top and matching pants), and pajamas that Erin would most want to have (winner: Kathy in her UND pink sweats). Here are some non-incriminating photographic highlights:

Our masks have "Snoozin'" written on them.

Nicole and Jesse's masks say "Hittin' the hay."

Ali (Erin's sister) and Mike's masks are reversible; one side says "Tonight," and the other says "Not tonight." You can see Ali's choice. Mike chose to show the other side of his mask, which he is wearing . . . somewhere out of sight in this photograph. Ahem.

Darin (mask: "Bed head") was a good sport, showing up in pajamas even though he had to duck out early to meet friends at a bar downtown. (He brought jeans to change into.)

The illustrious hosts, Erin and Jay (masks: "Cat nap"). Yes, Jay is wearing adult-sized footy pajamas with a drop seat. He's also wearing boxer shorts with realistic plastic buttocks attached to them, and those buns are peeking through the drop seat. Perhaps needless to say, his butt was a big hit all night long with seemingly non-stop groping of his prosthetic rear end. If this weren't a family-friendly blog, I might also write about how, at one point out in the garage, Laurie reached inside the drop seat, found the elastic waist band to the boxers, and exposed Jay's assets for us all to see.

I am not kidding; people could not keep their hands off Jay's faux butt! The groper in this pic is Kathy, winner of one of the prizes . . . and wife of one of Jay and Erin's pastors! Hey, ain't nothin' in the Bible prohibiting us from touching plastic ass cheeks.

Rob and Laurie were regular contributors to the karaoke madness. The karaoke corner of the garage featured a large chunk of carpet for flooring and a black backdrop whose silver side panels were leftover decorations from the spring's adult '80s prom. Laurie's sleep mask says "Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation." Rob's mask? "Camp Morningwood."

Four mikes: one held by Ali singing with her husband Mike and one held by Tammy (she of the sexiest pajamas) singing with her husband Mike and with Nicole. I love the look on Nicole's face!

Here's Joey with his "granniest" jammies.

Devilish grin? Who, me?

Here's a view of the gang in the garage at one point in the night. This is during the first half of the party. I can tell because (A) there are more people sitting than dancing around and singing karaoke and (B) the pastor's wife is still there.

There are certain rewards that go to the host of the party. Here Laurie, Nicole, and Susie show their appreciation. Perhaps they're just grateful that, for only a few moments, his damned fake butt is not hanging out all over the place.

If I weren't always invited to these phenomenal parties, I think I would want to be either the babysitter or the cab driver. That babysitter makes a huge haul from all the couples who dump our kids on her, and, really, how much work is it for her? The pack of kids all keep one another entertained, and since she gets them all into bed just a few hours into the night, she's got hours and hours of work-free income racking up as the minutes tick by. And the taxi? For each party, Jay and Erin hire a cab driver who, because of all the designated drivers there, usually has nothing to do but sit parked outside until Jay eventually comes out to release him. Jay even made several trips out to the cab with pizzas and snacks and pop throughout the night. Getting paid to sit in a warm car and enjoy curbside delivery of free food? Sign me up!

The last reveler has headed home or off to bed, the sun will be up in just a few hours, and only a couple hours after that, our group of friends will be back again for breakfast! We'll be exhausted, but it'll be great. Just like the party. And just like our friends.