Fraase Family: Christmas Party at MckMama’s

Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas Party at MckMama’s

Trying to downplay it as much as I can, my friend and I like to tell everyone people always go to the cities around Christmas time to do their big shopping. There’s a great outlet mall nearby, so we did stop there. But the real reason we drove 4 hours was to go to MckMama’s Christmas party.

Erin and I had talked for a week or two before the event to coordinate possibly heading down there. Easy for the single girl, but it takes a little more sweet talking for the married mom of 4 to get a road trip arranged! Hubby knows I read, and even recognizes the name MckMama, so when I threw out the fact that there was a party we wanted to go to that WASN’T as far as me going to Oklahoma, he was ok with it. (It was to be my birthday gift, sorta, which, by the way is today if you need to know. )

We arranged our schedules, arranged a time, changed plans, arranged again, and finally me up an hour or so late… and we were on our road trip! I have to admit I am SO glad she drove, because that girl’s car is GREAT! XM radio, butt warmers… seriously, heaven. We chatted and hardly listened to the radio. Erin had borrowed Garmin from her folks for the trip. Her family had named the rude woman voice that gives you driving instructions “B” – as in a B word I will not type here. She earned it. Every time we turned off the course, she gave an exasperated “Recalculating” and demanded we do U-turns on divided highways.

We hit the outlet mall and did some power shopping, then realized it was getting late. We checked into our hotel in the nearest town to MckMama’s, changed and told “B” where we wanted to go. “B” of course had no idea where this house in the middle of no where was, so we used a certain search engine’s map function (hint: rhymes with Flugle Taps). SO after about 45 minutes of turning around and trying the other direction we found it….

Photo: MckMama

Of course it was actually dark by then, so MckMama’s picture of a red house doesn’t help in the dark. But we were not the last ones there, so it was all good.

There were goodies everywhere and lots of people to meet. Some bloggers, some not. We mingled, shared stories, drank wine, ate cheesecake. A.Lot.Of.Cheesecake.

The house is as lovely as her pictures (which were everywhere!) and we could pick out all the pieces of furniture from Mud Lake! And just to keep it real, I am positive I could see the remnants of a bit of artwork by one of the kids on the wall of the bathroom. Yup, definitely a house with kids. The boys were all still up when we arrived so we got to see them for a little bit before bed time. MckMama was a wonderful hostess and once the kiddos were in bed she was able to chat with everyone. Her sister Hillary brought their little girl and many of us took turns rocking her (SO adorable!). We all ended the night in a big circle sharing embarrassing moments (sorry, no spilling the beans here!) and it was really great!! I’m glad we were able to go!