Hanging With The Grown Ups

A happy belated Thanksgiving to all my loyal Pete Chat followers. My Thanksgiving consisted of all of the critical elements for alliteration purposes we'll limit to football, family, feasting and this year Fame.

On and off for the last ten years Jordan and I have tried to have a turkey bowl where we gather the old high school friends to see who still has it. Some like my friend Josh are pretty well guaranteed to play. I have found lately however more and more of my peers my age with wives and families, are less inclined to play anymore.

I hadn't been home for Thanksgiving in a few years so I was really looking forward to having a good game. On Monday I contracted the mother of all colds. I was determined not to allow this cold to get in the way of me playing football. I willed myself to 85% healthy and it was game on. Devin Salo gets huge props for having a lot of his friends show up. We ended up having 16 guys,  a lot of them had been guys who graduated just after me. We had a  great game. I think had six touchdown passes and one rushing touch down for the game winner. My new cleats work like champs.

Dinner was delicious and I had tons of fun with my family. A few of us hit up the dollar theater to see the movie Fame. To paraphrase Dennis Green, "It was what we thought it would be".

Before I left Washington I had who I recently started calling my "grown up" friends over for dinner. I refer to them as grown ups even though we're all about the same age because, they are married, have established lives, and are much more settled than I am.

My house isn't the best for dinner parties particularly because we don't have a kitchen table. Beside that fact I am not much of a cook. I have been continually badgered by my sister for only being able to cook mini pizzas. After some careful consideration it was decided that Chicken Enchiladas would be the main course.

For the evening I invited, JJ and Jennifer Phillips, you might know them from when they adopted me in the beginning of 2006. JJ and I were discussing the other day who we have been friends for more than 20 years. Brett and Beth Dougherty, Brett and I were mission companions, room mates, teachers in the MTC, and teammates in flag football. Brett will forever be a legend in my book for his utterance of the phrase "Do you want to go over there?". Brett and Beth brought their little boy Alex.  Ryan and Lauren Barber, I've been friends with Ryan since fifth grade, I went to Prom with Ryan and Lauren in 1998. Ryan wore a green cummerbund that matched the waiters perfectly. Ryan and Lauren brought their sweet baby girl Lucy (who is prominently featured on my dad's  And finally Michael and Jodi Chaffee. Michael was my intern and we had a fun summer in the office keeping an eye on Sam. Michael and Jodi brought their baby Vivian.

Vivian, Me (pre haircut), Lucy, Alex

We had a great time talking about the old days, trying to figure out my complicated life and enjoying the food and the company.

 

Michael, Ryan, Me, Brett, JJ

Despite what you might have expected, we did not play any board games, instead I read some stirring passages out of a book I just finished about the 1992 Olympic Basketball team.

By the time it was all said and done we had a fun evening, I had regained confidence in my ability to host a social function, and was able to catch up with good friends.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a blast.