We have been with our small group from church for over 6 years. They've seen us through a lot. In fact, we didn't even attend the church for about a year and they still let us come to the small group while Hubby thought he was going to pursue ordination with another denomination. I knew we had gotten comfortable with each other when, at the Christmas party, we played Quelf together. That game involves dressing up as crazy things, yelling out crazy things, and generally throwing all inhibitions out the window.
This weekend we played an old (we had to listen to a cassette tape for part of it) game called How to Host a Murder. We were transported to 1940, and the Nazis were invading France. We had one chance to escape by boarding a 5:00 train by invitation only. We got our character descriptions ahead of time, and we were to dress in character and stay in character throughout the game. I was a young, beautiful princess with a quick temper. I had a great time dressing up for the part (as I tend to do). I wore my headpiece, long gloves, drop pearl earrings, and choker from my wedding. I borrowed a fur coat from a friend, pearls from my grandma, and some more bling and a train case from my mother. Add some vintage red lipstick and an updo, and I was ready!
Our wonderful hostess, Susan, made the evening even more fun by serving French food. I offered to pick up French fries or make French toast for the evening, but she said she had it covered. We started with an appetizer of cheese crackers--including brie, my favorite. During the first round of the game, we each got a book with more details about our characters and information we needed to disclose by the end of the round. Other details we learned but we were not to share unless pressed (in the case it couldn't be avoided).
The characters included me, a double agent disguised as a mysterious business man, a duke, a reporter, a seamstress/author, a weapons dealer, a perfume heiress who loves to host fancy parties, an airplane pilot, and his young navigator son.
We had two more rounds while eating a dinner of beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes, and French bread. These rounds revealed more clues, sordid details about our private lives, and made us all look like potential criminals. The final round revealed the murderer: dum dum dum dum.....*drum roll*....
Princess Idelle Chatter. Me! Shocking, isn't it? Here I am posing behind staircase spindles...I mean bars.
Even my husband, who does not enjoy theatrical events nearly as much as I do, had a great time. I'm going to be looking for an updated version so we can do this again sometime. It's fun to see a new side of people you think you already know. And don't worry...the body bag is hidden somewhere it will never be found.
