I play Bunco once a month with a group of friends. The majority of the group are Florida Gator fans. There is only one Florida State Seminole in the group. We had our Bunco group Christmas party last night. Along with the festivies we alway have an ornament exchange. The one Seminole got her revenge last night with this very creative ornament that was at the top of her gift bag. You had to open this before you got your real ornament. She went to the laundry mat and bought a small box of tide. Then she covered a toilet tissue roll with crimson ribbon and glued it to the top of the tide box. She then added the year. She said she wanted to put the score and add some tissue coming out of the roll for crying, but she was afraid to push it that far. So her very creative ornament brought back terrible memories......Roll Tide!

I thought I was the only artist in the group. I guess I was wrong. Speaking of art, I am the only one who makes her ornament every year. If you know anything about Bunco, you know that it is a dice game.....so I used dice for the pompom on Santa's hat and on the hanger. He is a jolly old fellow. I think won the pot last night!

Here is the first Bunco ornament I made. It was my exchange ornament last year. I had not made a picture of it. Lucky for me the hostess last night had last years ornament. It is entitled, Let the Fat Man Roll. You can't see it very well, but he is holding a gold dice in his hand.


We all had a great time last night. There was lots of good food, good friends, and many happy memories made. Oh yes, other than the trashy tide ornament a lot of beautiful ornaments were exchanged.

Girls Night Out

Have you ever played Bunco? If not, you are missing a real treat. All you need to know is how to roll the dice and count and sometimes that can get confusing. Our monthly Bunco game was hosted by Julie this week. We had a great time. Her dad, Richard, who is a wonderful cook, made a southern girls dream dinner, chicken and dumpling, blackeyed peas, corn bread and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and that was just the dinner. We had all kinds of snacks, including boiled peanuts.

After a lot of good food we got down to the serious part of the night. No, it's not really the game. It is spending an evening with friends old and new. It is sharing our laughter and tears and just having a great time. There are twelve players ranging in age from thirty something to sixty so don't think that our conversations aren't varied.

When we finally stop eating and talking we get down to the next important event of the night, rolling the dice. Now we all have different styles of dice rolling. Some of us like to take our time, talk awhile, then toss. Others like to keep the game moving so those dice don't cool off. I am the bell ringer and like to keep the game going. Debbie D. is the Bunco thief who will steal your dice right out from under you. Debbie R. keeps us laughing all night long. Mary Beth, who is the baby of the group just looks at us and shakes her head. She really wants to be like one of us when she grows up. I don't think she's decided which one yet.

When the game is over we all add up our scores to see who the big winner will be that night. It looks like Cheryl was really serious about adding her score. Being serious didn't help her tonight. Julie had the most Buncos and walked away with the big prize.

What great memories we are making. All of us look forward to our once a month game.

"My friends are my estate."- Emily Dickinson