Welcome to 2018!

According to granddaughter Lucy you can just reverse the numbers in your age.  This is from our conversation about me turning 71 this year and she thought I would really like 17!  Probably not so much since I wouldn't be enjoying retirement but would have a few decades of working ahead of me!

So to celebrate 2018 we had our good, funny, game for anything friends over for a Beatles theme dinner.  I dug out my old teapot, got a little tea, McVities Digestives (aka cookies), my tiny tea cups (many of them!) handed down to me from my favorite aunt before she died.

Ideas pop into my head and it probably had a lot to do with our recent visit to Liverpool with the Fab4 TaxiTour and my loves of Beatles music since day one.

And my Beatles shirt from a few years ago:

  Ringo  Starr (birth name Richard Starkey) was knighted a few days ago by Queen Elizabeth so we must now call him Sir Ringo I guess.  Andy and Antra - Andy is one of the lives of the of the party and brought singing, the Yellow Submarine and Sir Ringo to our house.

 Ringo aka Ross and Dee with my Beatles shirt that I decorated myself with a photo I took.

 "I Am A Walrus" - familiar song and I must say Rick and Jayne know more Beatles songs than me.

 Jer and Jodie - oh I forgot - it's Ringo again.

 And in the 1960s people sat around and smoked "stuff" so Andy brought a bag of "Doobies" to sell but believe me when I say it was just rolled tobacco and none of us smoke but it sure was fun to fake it.

 The group with the Yellow Submarine and taking a little "puff".  We all laughed so hard all night we decided it's really good exercise.

 Al and Sue were blessed with one of the desserts "Strawberry Fields Forever" and we each got one strawberry but the best dessert was the blessing from my good friend Janelle - homemade Plum Pudding and I made the hard sauce (sugar, butter, brandy).  I decided it might not be a good idea to be traditional and pour brandy on it and light it on fire.  Made me a little nervous so maybe another time or maybe practice outside in the summer!

 Rick and Jayne's gift - a wine from Anamosa, Iowa where they now live and the name Penitentiary Red requires the "finger cuffs" so I'm sure if I put them on I wouldn't be able to open the bottle - dang!

 And the menu - click to enlarge.  Antra calls it a 7 course dinner but some of the stuff was pretty simple and easy!