If you’ve been reading my blog, you will have been introduced to the Funky Four, the pinochle-playing partners, best friends, a/k/a Charlie and the Angels.  The foursome started several years ago, reuniting from a long-time-but-got-too-busy-with-life friendship and cousin kin. 

Babe (nickname for baby of the family or maybe stud muffin) is Charlie; Kay, his blonde-haired (okay, maybe white by now) wife, and Sandy (a/k/a Carmella Celeste) with the red hair (fairly certain it’s as true red nowadays as my Loreal brown), and I, the bottled brunette, make up the Angels.  We’ve all lost someone we loved, survived hardships, and have grandchildren we adore.  There are plenty more things we have in common too: dancing; playing cards; looking for tribute memorials of old singers;

 discussing, deciding upon, and then dressing up in Halloween costumes;

throwing awesome getting-old parties; and giving wacky or wild or inane gifts for every conceivable occasion.

And my blog was just such an occasion. The four of us got together to play cards at my house, out in the garage since I have no furniture in my house yet (floor refinishing project). It worked out great, though. There’s an extra dining table and chairs out there, a warm morning stove, and plenty of light and room (well, the vehicle had to be ousted to the driveway first). So we got our pizza, got our cards, got our snacks, coffee, tea, and Coke.  We were ready to deal ’em out.

But first, my funky fabulous friends had brought me a blog-warming gift all wrapped up in Veggie Tales stickers paper (perfect paper to symbolize my cooking adventure when I get the house back to order).  When I opened the box, it was filled with the neatest placemats and matching cloth napkins to place my white dishes with their delectable delights on them and take the photo shots.  I’m so excited!! 

Next was the movie Julie & Julia!  (I will refer you back to “Just the Beginning” blog.)  And to top off this so perfect gift was a personalized tote (embroidered by Laurie, the very talented daughter-in-law of Babe and Kay) (she takes awesome pictures, too)(http://www.portraitsbylaurie.com).  It even has a cat on it for Boaz; maybe I’ll start carrying him to the card games in it.  Although, I think it’s meant to pack food to and fro since I will be cooking some of my recipes at their house.

We were all set to begin the games.  This year we have decided to keep track of who wins the most money (I’m gonna be rich!!) at the end of the year, so for Christmas, I gave Sandy, the scorekeeper, a scorebook.

At the end of every evening of playing, she keeps track of who wins and who loses and how much we won or lost.  But before she can do that, we have to pick our partners (refer you back to January 22 blog, Pinochle) by drawing numbers and then pick our names.  We do this by using our combined initials, all or some.  And those names can get rather wicked, let me tell you.  Sometimes just the names almost scare me into submission.  (But I want to win the BIG money at the end of the year.)  We play three games, (sometimes more) and keep track of those in a notebook. 

These Funky Fabulous Friends of mine have given me too many hours to count of laughing till I couldn’t laugh anymore, but did, accepting me for who I am (even I can’t do that), and creating adventures out of nothing more than a deck of cards.