Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Wine Club Love!

So a few months ago, one of my lovely coworkers invited me to be her guest at Wine Club. Wine Club was started by a friend of hers (and now mine!) and a few girls that work on the hill. It started out small, but in the year that it's been in existence, it has grown tremendously and expanded to outside friends as well. The rule of Wine Club is, you don't talk about Wine Club. Just kidding! I couldn't resist a Fight Club reference...Actually, the rule of wine club is that everyone has to bring a bottle of wine, we all take turns hosting, and we create fun themes for each month's gathering. We've done Christmas parties where we've all brought toys to donate for Toys-for-Tots, a 'Wines you are Thankful For' (obv. a Thanksgiving theme), and 'Wines with a View' (the label on the bottle you bring has to have a view). One of my favorites was the 'Magnum Bottle' theme- which was actually a play on a Super Bowl theme (football players are huge, so we brought huge bottles to go along with the theme).
This month I was the lucky host. Since it was February, of course I went with a Valentine theme- 'Wine Club in Love' - everyone had to bring a bottle they loved. I went all out with the food- antipasta plate, spinach artichoke dip (B helped me out with that one, I'll have to share the recipe!), homemade pizza, and an apple tart (a Giada recipe, so good!). Everything must have been good, because there was no food left over! We also went through probably 10 bottles of wine, but whose counting? All in all it was a great night- I love throwing parties, and I love wine club. It's so great to have a large group of girls that can get together and just enjoy each others company. We don't all know each other well, so it's a great chance to make new friends. I know it's really expanded my circle of friends. Everyone should have some sort of social group- not just a group of best friends (though everyone should have that too!), but a larger group with a common interest- book club, food club, wine club, whatever! - that they can just enjoy hanging out and getting to know new people. I'm so glad that I get to be a part of it, and very thankful for all the friends I have made!
-J