Bring Your Favorite Dish Girls day turns into shopping in Gram's attic

This past weekend my sister, my mom and me went to my aunts house for a girls bring your own favorite dish, or at least a dish you know how to make, day. I made free evites for everyone to list what they were making and bringing (so no one made the same dish) and (with permission from my aunt lynn) we could see who was coming. I made sautéed kale and apple pie, my mom made chicken pot pie and quiche, and my sister made sauteed asparagus and zucchini and my aunt made this amazing meatloaf. I’ve made meatloaf before and usually it tastes ok, maybe just add the egg and breadcrumbs but this was delicious! It had capers and black olives, I’ll have to ask her for the recipe and post it next time I see her. Recipes for kale and apple pie will be at the bottom of the blog! We arrived a little early and my aunts house is decorated with little pumpkins and cinnaminy smelling candles for fall and I see my cousins and my other aunts (I have three aunts on my moms side of the family). My aunt had the cutest shirt that read - "blessings are everywhere" -that she wore. My mom's maidens name is Blessing, and so, it was literally true! I love her maiden name because there are always cool little things to buy that say "blessing" on them, like a cool piece of wall art. My 18 year old cousin starts showing me photo on her mac computer of her road trip across country with her boyfriend and two of their guy friends. Macs are amazing machines, everything looks so clear and bright compared to my old dell at home! The photos are so beautiful! I’ve always wanted to go cross country and to see all the stops and them sleeping in the car looked like so much fun! They went to mount rushmore, and the grand canyon and California and then drove all the way back. I feel like when I was 18 if my mom actually allowed me to drive cross country with my boyfriend, I probably wouldn’t have come back. I’ve gone out of the country with tour groups for school and my sister before, but never with just a boyfriend. I think she’s so brave and responsible to be doing that and still alive when she got back! I’m really proud of her. I almost think that my aunt is letting her do more stuff so she doesn't rebel completely at the college she just started going to. Like giving a little freedom at a time would be good enough to give her a little fun but also scare her enough to not want to go crazy and run away across the country. Smart, I'll have to remember that one for the future! I can't imagine how crazy my kids will be (if we're blessed with them on day!) if karma is any indication, I'm guessing they'll be a little wild!
Next, came the drinks, there was wine and pina coladas that tasted soooo sooo yummy with coconut milk, pinapple juice and rum. We relaxed in her cozy living room that faces nothing by pine trees and I ate kale, meatloaf, asaparagus and salad (with beats, eggs and walnuts) and chatted. My grandmom started bringing out boxes. Since she's switched to fiberglass trees, she wanted to give all of us a piece of Christmas's past:) First let me just tell you how it was visiting my Gram and grandpop for Christmas, she liked going overboard, and I mean overboard for Christmas. At Christmas time, EVERYTHING was Christmas! From the candles on the table to the dishtowels to the tablecloth to oh just about everything. Each Christmas she would decorate a different tree for each room. Like this one room, was called the wicker room, everything was white wicker, and there were little porcelain baby dolls in various poses through out the room. She saved this tree for me probably cause I told her over and over again how much I liked that room and I would request whoever was over to go in there and sit and hangout:) The tree was white, with blue lights, with blue balls with a white star and a white skirt. It was like a snow fairyland going in there. Next, the living room would be all christmasy with red and green and white everywhere, and the tree would be green with everything red on it; red bows, red balls, white lights though, red garland, red star and red tree skirt. (she divided this box up between all of us) Next, in another room, maybe the den, there was a teddy bear tree. This tree was so cute! She would get all those little teddy bears from one of the craft stores and collect other teddy bear ornaments, and the whole tree would be white lights with teddy bears all around. It was the cutest tree. The skirt was green with teddy bears pieces sewn into it. (she divided this one up too) The next tree was an angel tree. This tree was so so pretty. Everything was angels. The lights were white with every angel ornament you could imagine, there were porcelain doll baby angels, old fashioned dressed angels, gold bells, gold angels, cherub angels, like I said so so pretty! My aunt Lori and I divided this box up. The next room was a tree called the bird tree. The lights were white and she had fake birds perched on every branch in every color. We each took a few of the birds. Before I go any further, I just want to explain a little background, my gram and grandpop owned a bed and breakfast in Pennsylvania for a little while. There huge house was so beautiful. My grandpop had a garage with acres in the back to hike up, and my grandmom had a gorgeous garden that winded along a path where there were flowers and ponds and little lanterns to light the walk. I remember sitting in the enclosed porch with my sister on a rainy day and looking outside feeling like we were little maidens stuck inside this big scary magical house (mostly scary because my gram would have mannequins dressed like people in the windows so when you looked in from the outside, it looked like there were real people there!) She now has a slightly smaller place with less rooms but in her garage she still has a few mannequins! I remember when I went to visit her with Martin for the first time (I always like to know what she thinks about the beaus!) we were outside in her garden and he looked up at the garage window and saw a face and got so freaked out, he thought he saw a ghost! I acted like it might a ghost for alittle while hehe. hey, a girls gotta have some fun right!? and then told him the story:) Two more trees, the next tree was a santa tree. Everything was sometype of santa ornament. There were santa faces, old fashioned little ornament books with santas on them, santas holding cello’s santa’s holding drums, santas holding sacks, and more little santas. We split up that box. The next box went to my sister because she requested it, the Victorian tree. This tree was just as beautiful as the angel tree, with Victorian old fashioned ornaments all around, including a large pink bow to go around the tree. It was so sweet of my gram to give us her old Christmas trees! It really got me excited about Christmastime! I decided I’m going to put the wicker tree (love love that tree mostly because of the brightly lit room it reminds me of) at the lakehouse and then get a bigger tree for our apt where I can put all my new ornaments on! At the end of the stuffing our faces and way too many glasses of wine, we packed my moms car with all the boxes and headed to her place, where I unloaded the boxes into my car, drove to my dads, we had dinner with him and then drove back home to NY. I feel like there should be a big list of all the possible types of parties one could have: - kinda like this -

birthday party
bachelorette party
bridal shower party
wedding
baby shower
bring your favorite dish girls day
just regular girls day
girls wine and movie night (movie must be a chick flick)
fourth of july party
christmas party
thanksgiving party
halloween party
bring in the fall party
spring party

know of anymore kinds of partys?