Groovy Kind of Feelin'

That's what I had this weekend. Give a girl some good friends, a bit of the drink and some fantastic food and that's what happens. Throw in 4 cute, funny grandsons and you've got Nirvana, minus a dirty diaper or two.
Friday night I went to something called the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Benefit Dinner. It was sponsored by the Tift Area Women's Health Foundation, here in good ol' Tifton, Georgia. You buy a table and fill it full of your friends, you decorate the table, dress to match your table, then you party down! Here I must be honest - I didn't do any decorating! ABAC had two tables and I was a part of that group. My friend Kathy had some scarves made up for us, since we mostly wore black. They were these gorgeous lacy scarves, made up from non other than plus-size underwear fabric samples. I wouldn't have recognized it - ha-ha! We had a buffet dinner and big old homemade cakes, and naturally lots of alcohol. I was the DD, so I limited myself to ONE beer. Poor me. There were prizes for table decorating, grand prizes and a silent auction. I'm such a good wife - I got J. five sessions with a personal trainer. Supreme sacrifice on my part, don't you think?
Here's our table:

Like I said, I can take no credit for the decorating. I just showed up and it was done! We even won the most elegant table award. It was really a lot of fun, which is pretty much what you expect with 400 women and plenty of food and drink in one room!

The next morning J. and I left GA at 5:30am to make it to SC in time for my brunch with my GNOG group. J. likes to say that this stands for "Guys Need Our Goodies", but it really means Girl's Night Out Group. Granted, it wasn't nightime, but we didn't let that stop us. The group was originally just a bunch of women who would meet every now and then for dinner, drinks and TALK. You really never knew how many or who would show up. I guess after a while it became 5 of us, and then Julie came along one night and decided to stick around. We've had visitors, but no one else ever sticks. The first night I met Julie I commented on her great hair. Yea, that's me . Even the safest comment goes awry. Luckily Julie isn't too thin-skinned. Turns out she was in the middle of cancer treatment, and was wearing a wig. It was one hell of a nice wig, if I do say so myself. Three of the six of us are cancer survivors (you go girls!) and we're all survivors of some kind or another. But I digress, as usual. So the six of us met at Julie's for brunch. Never underestimate a GNOG. We started out with mimosas and sausage balls. Strange to some, I'm sure, but quite southern and normal to the rest of us.

Then we moved on to baked pears:
Bloody Mary's:

Shrimp and Grits: I didn't get a good picture of the sweet bread - some wonderful concoction of nuts, orangy goodness and sweetness. And of course, Julie's homemade bread. Are you getting full yet? Wait - there's still dessert and coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream:I can't remember what this is called, but it was very chocolate, and you poured something like melted Godiva Chocolate and rum over it. Patty, leave a comment and tell me again what it is, so I can tell everyone else! If most of the food looks familiar, then you probably already read this month's Southern Living. Yep, it's in the Feb. issue, on page 88 - I think!

After all that food and drink (no, I wasn't drunk!) I took the four grandsons for a 3-hour outing at McDonald's. Yes, this grandma knows how to turn supper into an all-night affair! That groovy kind of feeling turned into the best night's sleep in ages!

added later: it has occurred to me that I didn't take any pictures of my friends. For all you know I made this and ate it all alone, just so everyone would think I had friends!