a good-old fashioned ugly sweater party, revisited

Last night we threw an Ugly Christmas Sweater party with some of our church friends. Instead of fretting over the details of a lavish meal, we whipped together a nacho bar with homemade salsa* and cheese dip, taco meat, guac, and all the other essential fixings. How devastating to admit that I lost my camera battery that night! **Addendum: But luckily Erin had hers! See the photo above of me in my bright red crop-top sweater with friends Sara & Kris. It would've been cute if it didn't end 3 inches above my belly button! Since I didn't have time to wash it before the party, I smelled thoroughly of Lysol for scabbie prevention.** I so wish I could share some of the classic looks that were sported at the party. There's just nothing quite like wearing the party to the party. Let me just say that Goodwill was very good to us this year! And in the true spirit of recycling ugly old sweaters to make them 'hip' again, we had a recyclable gift exchange as well. We each wrapped up a by-gone favorite paperback, cd, or movie, and wrote a clue about its content on the gift tags. It was a true white elephant exchange, and no one had to spend a dime!

*It's actually a bit of misnomer to call it salsa...I think the creation is more like pico de guillo, but whatever it is, it's yummy, and just involves about 30 minutes of chop, chopping:
4 tomatoes
2 green bell peppers
1 red bell pepper
1-2 white onions
4 jalapenos
1 bunch of cilantro
1 lime (juice)
a dash of salt and vinegar