Brian and Sara’s Holiday Sweater Party


Big Trev


Rita and Dallas


Dallas and Rachelle


Crazy Mustache!


Mikey and Trevor having a moment.


I even had a sweater wrap for the wine I brought!


Ed and Simonie doing the 3-story beer bong.


Trevor beer bonging and Andy looking super creepy. His shirt was not a sweater, but had a velvet collar!


Frankie got frisky and then needed a snuggle.


The view from 3 stories up.


Carrie, Sara, Brian. When these come out, it’s time to go!

The first weekend in December always brings Brian and Sara’s holiday sweater party. I went to their party the year before last, but couldn’t go last year. I don’t know what it is about wearing holiday sweaters that makes everyone get crazy! This year the weather was so warm that we spent all night outside on their deck!

Oh, and let me explain the hideous facial hair. Most of the guys grow it out in November, some for charity, and then leave it for this party, because it happens the first weekend in December. This year there were fewer guys who did it, I think for various reasons.. some professional.. but Dallas grew a pretty good mustache. It only took the whole entire month!

Fook Lam in Honolulu’s Chinatown

Ryan and Carrie, Dallas’s friends from college, took us out for lunch one day. The restaurant that they suggested was in Chinatown and I haven’t spent much time at all there while in Honolulu. We parked the car in a parking garage and when we came out we were in the middle of the Chinese cultural plaza. After walking in circles a few times, we finally found the restaurant, Fook Lam. We ordered a ton of dim sum and caught up. It was great. Ryan and Carrie always know the good places! 🙂

Brian and Sara’s Wedding Ceremony


Waiting for the boat at the Mocambo Restaurant.


Our ride, the Caribbean Princess.


View of isla from the ferry.


Larry, Josh, Brett, Todd and Marty boarding the boat.


Us.


“I’m on a boat!”


Andy couldn’t resist the pole!


Arriving at Zama.


The seating cards were inserted into limes. Neat idea!


The menu – Tixin-Xic Fish, Carne Asada, Potatoes au Gratin, Steamed Vegetables.


Emily & Mitch


Christine, me, Vanessa


Damian & Vanessa


Josh, Lynda, and Trevor getting drinks.


Kilmer & Jess were in our row for the ceremony.


Vanessa & Lynda were in front of us.


Us


Larry


Brian and Officiant Josh.


Todd, Danielle, Nate


Adam & Chloe


Mike & Carrie


Sara & her parents


Sara & her parents


Sara & her parents


Sara & her mom


Josh did a great time conducting the ceremony.


Danielle, Chloe, Carrie


The Rings


The Kiss


Married!

Sara and Brian were married at the Zama Beach Club, which is a gorgeous venue located on the shores of the secluded Sac Bajo area of Isla Mujeres. To get to Zama, all of the wedding guests took a short walk from our hotel, Ixchel Beach Hotel, to the Magana Dock, which is next to the Mocambo Restaurant. While many of the ladies preferred to be in the enclosed lower level of the boat so they didn’t mess their hair up, I thought the open upper deck was the place to be. The ride was really fun and very beautiful. Even if I did have to watch Andy pole dance (not so beautiful).

Upon arrival at Zama, we all walked down a long pier to get to the beach club. There was a big open palapa with a bar and a marble dance floor, a smaller palapa where we’d be having dinner, and seating set up on the beach for the ceremony. There was a bit of time (15 or 20 minutes) before the ceremony was to start, so of course, everyone got drinks… which we still had while being seated and watching the ceremony. If you know any of these people, this is not odd!

The guys were all dressed in casual suits with tropical flowers on their lapels and the girls all had gorgeous, long, plum-colored dresses. Sara looked beautiful, of course, in her long, strapless gown, carrying flowers whose colors coordinated with the girl’s dresses. Josh was the wedding officiant and conducted a very heartfelt ceremony that included both Mayan traditions and personal touches that you’d only know if you were friends with Brian and Sara. Very nice.

La Casa Del Tikin Xic, Isla Mujeres


La Casa Del Tikin Xic


La Casa Del Tikin Xic


Dallas, Larry, Josh, Sara, Brian, Lynda


Vanessa and Damian visiting with Carrie and her husband?/boyfriend?


Getting an autograph from the great Eva Mendes

Our third stop, La Casa Del Tikin Xic, was a bit hard to find. In fact, I’m not even sure it was our intended destination, because some of our group never made it there. Or maybe they just couldn’t find it. Who knows. Things were getting a little jumbled by this point in the island golf tour! Also, the last photo is Josh getting an autograph from the great Eva Mendes to make the people who never made it here jealous! Kelly took one look later on and said “What? That’s Lynda!” … think whatever you want, Kelly!

I couldn’t find much online about La Casa Del Tikin Xic, but did see that it used to be called Playa Lancheros (Boatmans Beach?). Googling Playa Lanchero will bring up many more results and that’s where I found out that tikin xic (pronounced “teekeen sheek”) is a famous dish on Isla Mujeres. It is a dish made of white fish, usually grouper or drum or a local variety, that is prepared whole and marinated with adobo de achiote and sour oranges. It is then wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked. This would have been good to know beforehand. Instead I ordered chicken quesadillas and they had bones in them! Ew. But I did share a big mound of guacamole with Vanessa and Damian and it was SO GOOD.

La Casa Del Tikin Xic is right on the beach. There’s a big pavilion with a ton of seating , which is connected to a bar and what looked to be a dance floor? In the bar there was a jukebox that Josh commandeered and started annoyingly (to the people already there) and amusingly (to the workers) playing American dance songs, including Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” I think we weren’t drunk enough to dance to that yet, even though it is Brian’s absolute favorite.

Outside there was a lot of chairs and tables set up and even some chaise lounge chairs. Some people were swimming. One area even had a long and skinny palapa with seating underneath. I loved sitting outside. So nice and relaxing.

Out on the pier there was a guy in a fenced in area who, for a few pesos, would let you get in the water with him and hold his pet shark. Before you freak out, it’s not like this was a Great White. It was a Nurse Shark, which is a bottom feeder that is generally not a threat to humans. Vanessa and I walked down the pier to take a look but it was so unimpressive that I completely forgot to even take a photo!

Aside from the chicken bones and the unimpressive shark, I really liked this place. You could probably spend a whole day here, eating and swimming and relaxing and having drinks. Oh, and who doesn’t love a sink like this?

Jeopardy: Chad Edition


Chad’s Birthday Mug


Chad, Cousin, Dallas, Trent


Chen-Je, Jen, Jason


Limey, Ted, Fitz, Paul, Carrie, Trent


Chad & Dallas


Chad & Rachelle

In grand family tradition of playing bar games for 40th birthday parties, we all gathered last weekend to celebrate Chad’s big birthday and played Jeopardy: Chad Edition. Remember, for Brian’s party there was the Pub Crawl Olympics and for Jill’s there was Survivor Wrigleyville.


Brian setting up the Jeopardy board.


Jill explaining the rules.


Jeopardy Team Representatives: Carrie, Limey, Ted

For Chad’s 40th birthday Jen rented out the beer garden at Fizz, but since it was raining, we were in a heated tent. We paid $35 for all the drinks we could drink for 4 hours and Jen arranged for some really delicious food to be served as well. At the appointed time, we all gathered to play Jeopardy. When we arrived Jen had given us each a number: 1, 2 or 3. This was to sort people into 3 teams. I was on Team 2: Team Burrito House. We chose Limey to be our team representative. When the answers were presented, Limey had to yell Burrito House to buzz in with the correct question. The other teams and reps were Ted for Team Guthries, Team 1, and Carrie (and later Danny) for Team Syracuse.


Chad


Getting intense!

These were the categories – For the Jeopardy round there was The Man and His Bans, Potent Potables, and Movies & Music. In Double Jeopardy there was Chad’s Sports Follies, Brushes With Fame, and He’s Had a Job or Two. The Final Jeopardy category was Location, Location, Location and the question was about how many places Chad has lived in Chicago. Jill and Brian constructed the Jeopardy board. Jill played Vannah White, flipping the answers open, while Brian did his best Alex Trebec, reading the answers off. Jen was the scorekeeper.


Chad had to charade out one of the Jeopardy answers.


Jeopardy crowd.


Final Jeopardy


Chen-Je with two winning girls, Caroline & Loden

The game got really heated with everyone screaming to ring in and shouting answers. Before Final Jeopardy my team, Team Burrito House, was in the lead by far! We could not mess this up! Well, leave it to Limey…. he wagered something like $4,000 more than we even had, which seems to be breaking the rules to me, and then we lost everything, and then some, when no one on our team know how many places Chad lived in. Wah wah wahhhh…


Cousin & Todd


Baltimore Bomb


Baltimore Bombs


Jill & Dallas

Chad’s high school friend Todd flew into town from Maryland and introduced us to a new shot called the Ravens Bomb. Well, when he’s tailgating at football games he calls it that, but we were opting to call it the Baltimore Bomb. In Baltimore they drop a grape vodka shot into a cup of Red Bull energy drink. At Fizz they only had Monster energy drink, so we used that. Check out the awesome custom shot glasses Fizz had. Perfect for bombs. As for the Baltimore Bomb? It tasted awesome. The grape vodka tasted just like grape soda. Todd did warn me that they will sneak up on you if you are not careful, but I only had two. They were flowing pretty readily, though. I think they did sneak up on some people. Or… it could have been the other bombs…


Chad’s Birthday Cheesecakes


Dessert: Carbombs or Cheesecake?

Of course a night out with all these guys is not complete without Irish Car Bombs. Right as Trent was ordering a round, Jen was in the other room gathering people for cake! Ed (remember The Baked Escape) made two white chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecakes (with a chocolate cookie crust) for the party. So delicious. I’ve had this one a few times. It never disappoints. Just as the cake was being cut the Irish Car Bombs arrived. So, choose your poison: Cheesecake or booze. Or both. Why not? Actually, I only had a tiny sliver of the cake and passed on the bombs.


Todd & Brian


Dancing around the birthday boy.

After this, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel very drunk, but there was a lot of dancing. And Ed sent me photos of things this week that I only vaguely remember happening. So yeh. Kind of proud that us old people can still have a good time!