Hunch Punch, Sparklers, and A Big Furry Hat

This Christmas I had a few of my friends over for the night. Steph, Jess, Levi, Priya, and Krista all came to my house to partake in a Christmas dinner and foul play. I surprised them by preparing Christmas dinner and had it on the table when they arrived. Steph came the day before and she helped me get it all together. The menu consisted of both American and Moldovan food. There was chicken (prepared with the help of my host mom), mashed potatoes (which my host sister Inga prepared, and they tasted EXACTLY like from the States), mushroom gravy, stuffing, cabbage corn and crab salad, and a few salads my host mom through on the table for our vegetarian friend Priya. Levi mixed some Hunch Punch up to perfection and Steph used her magical baking ability to make double chocolate chunk-ness brownies, banana bread, apple lemon bread, and deep dish apple pie for the next morning.
I insisted my host family join us in the feast and they were interested to check out what we made and to taste it. I live in a casa mica, which is a little two room house beside the house in which my host family lives. Think studio apartment. Using my table that I do schoolwork on, we crammed in about 12 of us onto the little table in my little house. It is amazing how you can fit about three times the people a table can normally hold. But here they use plates the size of the ones you use with teacups, so they helps increase the space. My host family enjoyed the Hunch Punch and couldn't believe it had a whole bottle of Vodka in it, because they couldn't taste it. Levi is just that good. They enjoyed the stuffing and gravy. All in all, the dinner was a big success. Getting it all together was a lot easier with my host mom and sisters helping look after the chicken, bring in plates and dishes, and their little comments that, although at times annoying, seemed to make it a little better.
After dinner, more drinking, and desert, we sat down to play Dirty Santa. We all purchased gifts of 50 lei or less, wrapped them, and put them in the middle of us. We drew numbers (1-6) and whoever has #1 gets to pick a present first. They open it and then #2 can either pick #1's gift or chose one from the circle that they don't know what it is. This is a very fun game. Priya's gift was this awesome white rabbit fur puffy winter hat. At first Krista had the hat and I had Levi's awesome present of a wooden pipe and a mortar and pestle. I loved it, but I had my eye on the hat. It was Priya's turn and she picked someone else's present and the other person picked my present. So it was my turn to pick a present, either the one left in the circle, or one that someone else has. I went for the hat and snagged it away from Krista. So, at the end of the game I had in my possession the wonderful hat. I think Krista is still bitter about it (ha!) but it is definitely one rockin' hat.
After the game we sat around and sang Christmas songs with my host mom sitting in listening to it. It was really nice to sing with everyone, even the silly Christmas songs. Then we went outside with Levi's newly acquired sparklers and firecracker. We all went into the street and danced around with our sparklers. People must have thought we were nuts, these adults acting like children. And of course since there was snow we had to have a snow fight.
Christmas was a great time and it was wonderful to share it with my friends. It almost felt like a regular Christmas...almost.