Every year Jimmie and I host an adult only Christmas party full of shenanigans and with a ridiculous theme.

See…shenanigans.

We used to host it at our house. (This pic was at our house during the “Christmas Vacation” themed party. I would never allow myself to wear pants that uncomfortable and, quite frankly, UNFLATTERING out in public- and we won’t even talk about Jimmie.)  A few years ago, the party outgrew our house.  We wanted to keep up the tradition, and wanted to make it open for our friends to bring their friends, so we created the Annual Christmas Crawl.  You guys, this event is quite honestly the best thing you can experience in your life, if you like to have fun.  It’s ridiculous on so many levels I can’t even tell you.

What’s a Christmas Crawl, you say?  Quite simply, it’s a pub crawl through the most amazing dive bars in our neighboring small town you can imagine, right in the middle of the most stressful time of year.  Every bar has a challenge or activity and it’s just seriously the most fun you can have within the law (mostly.)  This year’s “guests” topped out at around 60 people when everyone was actually present and accounted for.  There was a lot of wandering aimlessly by some people and a few “oh my god, does anyone have eyes on _____” a few more times in the night, so I don’t think we were ever all actually together.  Grown ups have a lot of stress around the holidays, and an adult night that isn’t spent with your work people, your family or your kids, tends to get a little bit rowdy.

The beauty of the Christmas Crawl, is that it’s an open invite for anyone and everyone. We start by inviting our friends, and we all but beg them to invite their friends.  Like most people our age, we have friends from a lot of different circles of our life. Everyone from family members that we love hanging out with, to friends from our kids’ schools or sports teams to neighbors to the “how did we even meet?!” friends.  This means, the friends of friends crowd is even more diverse and eclectic.  It’s amazing!

We start the night an awkward group of people that loosely resemble middle-schoolers lined up on the opposite sides of the gym at our first school dance, and end the night with some dude you don’t know nestled in your bosom while your husband holds him up and his wife swears he’s been roofied because this is SO out of character (and it truly is.)  It’s truly the most magical time of the year. This year was especially amazing, because around stop number three or four, we just starting adopting people from the bar into our group.  We seriously made friends with a guy who Jim and I immediately made our Facebook friend and decided was now part of our family whether he likes it or not.  He’s front and center of our group photo from the night, as he should be!
(This is just a sample of the group, hopefully small enough to protect the identities of the innocent.)

This year’s theme was holiday/festive pajamas.  Jimmie was Olaf and I had some ridiculous winter onesie on.  It was…epic. I tried to think of any other word to use because that one is so done, but that’s really all I’ve got. Jimmie in a giant, white, fictional snowman pajama suit can be nothing less than epic.  Most of our friends got into the spirit of it all, and those that didn’t were wishing they did by the end of the night (whether they admit it or not.)

EDIT- Jim just read this and demanded I add funny details for everyone to experience…

My favorite part of the night is a little game I like to call drink or dare. It’s full of stupid challenges that intend to 1) break the ice among strangers and 2) embarrass as many people as possible. Some of the challenges are mild: high five every person in the bar, call everyone “Chief” for half an hour and take a selfie with a stranger are a few of my faves. Other challenges are a little silly: every time you laugh pump your arm like Tiger Woods…you get the drift. My personal favorite was “go caroling with a group of friends.”  Imagine your family sitting in a cute little pizza place and a group of strange, possibly drunk, men coming around in their pajamas singing Christmas carols. That happened. And here’s a little video of a small part of those events…

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One of our friends was dressed in a Rocky onesie. Everywhere we went he sang the theme song and raised his arms like the champ. Everywhere. And then there was our group Santa Clause. This little outfit is probably illegal in most states. 

I’m honestly not sure why the town of puyallup even allows us to keep doing this year after year. We are complete menaces. 

Probably the most fun event of the night is the photo scavenger hunt. Here’s a pic of the challenges…

It’s amazing what total strangers will do for you to help you win a stupid scavenger hunt that has no real prize. 

I have no other point to make except to tell you that you need this in your life.  Start planning it now. Make a reason to get all of your friends together for something like this- or however best fits into your life.  It’s the best grown-up part of our holiday season.  We walk away amazed at the friendships and love that we have in our life.  Wishing you the same joy and love in your holiday season…