As you likely remember, one of my goals for 2019 is to have a monthly wine club where everyone can get together and talk and catch up and drink copious amounts of wine. Now that we’re at the end of May (five months into the year!!), I thought it would be a good time for an update on how this particular goal is going.
It’s going super well! I’ve managed to throw a wine club get together every month so far! I’ve been trying to be consistent about the timing of the event so I’m trying to keep it as the last Saturday of the month, but that’s meant wine club has been on some weird weekends. For example, May’s wine club was on Memorial Day Weekend. Which I was definitely worried about because people tend to travel for long weekends, but the turnout was great and the party was definitely fun!
Since it’s been getting warmer I’ve started making my easy sangria in big batches for wine club and it’s been a huge hit. (I even had a friend at the last one who doesn’t like wine and he loved this sangria–so consider that a glowing endorsement.) The sangria always disappears fast so I’m always sure to still have people bring bottles of wine to contribute to the party so we don’t run out of drinks. For May’s event I even busted out the champagne popsicles! And to be honest, I think they were even more fun than the sangria. Unfortunately thunderstorms forced us inside for May’s club but I think the popsicle cocktail would’ve been even better if we had been outside.
Reflecting on wine club I’m realizing that I have two favorite things about this event. The first is that it gives me a solid time to see friends from all different parts of my life all at one time. Now that I’ve been in DC for a while (omg almost three years!), I have more friends than I realized and they’re from different jobs and clubs and parts of my life. So having a big party to invite everyone to is a great way for all my friends to meet each other and for me to see friends who I don’t get to see in my everyday life anymore. And the fact that it happens every single month means that people don’t feel guilty or sad if they can’t make it to one–there’s always next month!
The other thing I love about wine club is that it gives me a reason to make fun new recipes and spend all day cooking for the party. I love cooking and trying out new recipes but a lot of the things I want to try are too big for just me and Brandon to eat, or aren’t a full meal and it doesn’t feel really worth it to make lots of appetizers for two people. But when I’m cooking or baking for the party I can make whatever I want. I can make a big batch of baked spinach artichoke dip or a whole batch of biscuits or try making my own breadsticks. I can spend hours looking through Pinterest to find the recipes that makes me the most excited if I want! And I know that pretty much whatever I make will get demolished at the party, which is always a great feeling.
All this to say, wine club is going really well and I’m super thankful for my amazing friends who show up month after month to drink wine and eat snacks with me. Love you all.
xoxo,
J
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