Lutheran Luck and Laughter

Susan and I had a fun night out tonight.  A while ago, Susan got an invitation via Facebook to a birthday get-together for a woman who goes to our church.  I'm not this woman's Facebook friend, so I didn't get that invitation and declined Susan's offer to crash the party, but I encouraged her to attend.  Well, the woman later followed up with Susan to clarify that I was invited, too, so we decided to go.  And we're so glad that we did!

We arrived at the restaurant to find a small group of people with church connections, essentially.  Kristin, the birthday girl, is married to Brent, the director of the Bible camp that our daughters attend in the summer.  One of his coworkers, Nathan, was at the get-together, too, along with his wife, Emily, who happens to be a confirmation mentor for a group of middle-schoolers at church, as am I.  As the Sunday school director at church, Susan shares an office with Jodeen, who was at the gathering, too, along with her husband, Jerry (remember them?).  The last person at Kristin's party was Kathy, who goes to our church, is attending seminary via distance education, and just happens to be from a small town near where I grew up . . . and is married to a man who was my oldest sister's high school classmate!  (Small world.)

We had a delicious meal (it was at El Sombrero, one of our favorites), some tasty beverages, and great conversation.  It was a little crazy to be invited out to celebrate Kristin's birthday since we didn't really know her very well, but we're so glad we went and got to know her--and the rest of the group--better.  This group contains fun-loving people; after the food had been eaten, Kathy retrieved slips of paper from her purse, and we played a couple rounds of games while sitting at the table!  We laughed hysterically as we learned a lot about their senses of humor and other personal tidbits that came out as the games progressed (and as the beverages got consumed).

It reminded us, actually, of the "game nights" that used to be regular parts of our life when we lived near enough our friends in the Red River Valley to gather weekly, shoo the kids into the basement, pour some beverages, crack out the board games, and let loose with the jokes and the laughter.  This crew from tonight are no substitute, of course, but Susan and I wouldn't mind another chance to hang out with them all.  Lutherans are fun!