"If You Want to Destroy My Sweater..."

"....Pull this thread as I walk away..."

The title was a reference for any Weezer fans reading this!  My sister had an "Ugly Sweater" party this weekend to correspond with the Bison/SDSU game and it was quite a fun weekend.  Today was pretty tough because it was so boring and the weekend was so fun.  I saw alot of people that I don't see that often, especially in one place so it was lonely to be sitting and staring at a computer screen all day.  Also, my sleep schedule is off kilter and I felt like falling asleep all morning.  Oh, well, it was worth it.  I wish a weekend like this would happen more often. 

This was my first ugly sweater party, although I am familiar with the concept.  To this type of party, a guest can wear old, tacky, or outlandish sweaters.  The sweaters often date from the 1990s but can be from any era.  Often the most ridiculous ones have a holiday theme. 

I found this one, which is actually fleece and not a knit sweater, at a second hand store.  It's not really THAT bad (although I would not wear it except for this party)  but was ill fitting.  I chose it because those are cats on the front.  Cats wearing Christmas wreaths on their heads.  OH  YEAH!  Shopping for sweaters was a blast.  I must say that I cannot believe how many cartoon-themed sweaters and sweatshirts I saw on the racks.  Not the children's racks either.  When did grown women wear Disney, Looney Toon, and Winnie the Pooh clothing?  Oh, I am soooo glad the 1990's are over. 

This is a group shot of the guests present when Andrea decided to take a group shot.  There was quite an eclectic collection of sweaters!

 Even Jake had a sweater!  It was a child's size vest with a winter scene on the front (or the back, for a dog!) from a thrift store.  He was so excited to have alot of people around paying attention to him that he forgot he was wearing a sweater and kept it on all night.  The little pug belongs to party guests Aaron and Domonie, who live in South Dakota.  Her name is Sophie and she and Jake have visited each other before.  They are good friends and love to play. 

Here is a shot of the "cousins" on my dad's side!

This is the cousins from my mom's side (aka, my family with our cousin Katie).  Katie's sister didn't make it to the party and our other three cousins are in middle school in Michigan so were not able to attend this booze fueled event. 

Jakey looks completely doofy but he had alot of fun!

Kirk (right) had an amazing sweater with a muddle of "Amerciana" images such as apples, flags, hearts, farm animals (check out that hen!), a school blackboard.  Hahaha it was amazing.  My brother's patriotic number was purchsed by me at the Boy's Ranch store and is acutally a men's XL!  He was worried I would forgot that we aren't the same size when I was shopping and that his sweater would be midriff baring. 

Awww...maybe my mom will want to use this for a Christmas card!  Haha. I doubt it.  As you can see, I am wearing a different shirt.  I couldn't reisist a wardrobe change so I could wear my mom's denim shirt from the 1990's that has little Christmas appliques on it, such as presents, mistletoe, and bells.  It was very ill fitting, with too short sleeves and a wide cut.  Andrea is also wearing a sweater of my mom's, which she recalls wearing with a cream colored, ankle-lenght courduroy skirt!  It was really wide, so she had sewn elastic around the waist band to cut down on the frump factor.  Too funny!

On Saturday the football game was at 3 pm, and we managed to drag ourselves to tailgating around noon.  It was kind of chilly but not unbearable, and we had a good time.  It was the last home game of the season and I can't believe it.  I looked forward to tailgating starting in, oh, probably late July, and it feel kind of anti-climactic that it is over.  Sigh...

I was excited for the football game because it was the "Trees Bowl", which is when the ND Forestry Service has traditionally given away live sapplings for the fans.  Every year, Justin gets me one (I usually am not in attendance at the actual game) but this year I went to the game my self and discovered that there were no saplings this year.  The Forest Service felt it was too late in the year to plant baby trees so instead they gave away Christmas tree ornaments withe the Bison logo on them!  They are very cute. 

The rest of the evening was spent getting tipsy with all my pals, like we have done so many times before, and it was so relaxing and fun!  Maybe the Bison will have a playoff game and we can do it one more time!