One of my favorite events is our yearly game night that we have hosted the past three consecutive years with friends. Between a lack of anything to do in Indiana mid-February and my adoration for cards, it’s the perfect excuse to gather together with friends and have a little card party. Being from the Midwest, we are huge euchre lovers [everybody who isn’t in the Midwest is now googling “euchre”] so that’s what we play, tournament style. This year we had sixteen friends over the past weekend and got down with our bad selves. Fun fact – I finished dead last in the tournament so that’s awesome. While I may love the game, the game doesn’t always love me but that’s beside the point.

For this year’s party, I did something that has been on my bucket list for the past two years – ordered Chick-fil-A catering. No, this is not a joke about the whole bucket list thing. On my 2017 resolution list I had written the words “order a nugget tray” and like all of my other resolutions, it didn’t happen. BUT 2018 IS A NEW YEAR AND A NEW ME SO HERE WE ARE! A tray of the BEST chicken nuggets in the comfort of your own home, does life get any better? Exactly [the answer is no].  For our little shindig, I went alllllll out and ordered every tray imaginable making my need to cook anything ZERO. Do you know how magical it is to have twenty people over and not have to spend a minute in the kitchen preparing a thing? Glorious, really.

All I had to do was hit up the Chick-fil-A website, place my order online and designate when I wanted to pick it up. It is nice because you have two options – to either pick up hot and serve right away or pick up frozen and cook them in the oven when it works for you. (You can even serve Chick-fil-A on Sunday this way!) I went with hot just so I would be able to drive home the fact that I literally didn’t have to do a thing to feed these people. On the menu – Chick-fil-A nuggets, chicken strips, fruit, chicken wraps, salad, cookies and chips. I never knew their chips were so amazing but I have learned to never doubt a thing that Chick-fil-A offers. Add in all of those amazing sauces and salad dressings and the menu was complete. To keep things even easier in the kitchen, I went with paper plates and napkins and plastic silverware. No cleanup makes for a much happier Erin at the end of the night. Everything was super fresh and even more delicious.  Fortunately, not one guest was disappointed with the menu and there was s0mething for everybody. Smiles abounded as plates were being filled and allowed for plenty of leftovers to be snacked on during the remainder of our card playing evening. The only bummer was finding out at the end of the night that all of my beloved nuggets were gone meaning none for me the following day. The only solution to this problem is to order another tray of nuggets so obviously, scheming on when. If you are planning your own event [awesome for nights with friends or family, holidays, football Saturdays and Sundays, etc.] they have several options for tray sizes ranging from servings for 8 up t0 25! I’m now seriously questioning if I will ever cook for another gathering again.  Now, on to the game section of the evening. If you are a fan of Euchre, here is how we played our little tournament. This set-up has worked great the past three years and I highly recommend it!

1. Every person puts in $10 to participate at the beginning of the evening. At the end of the evening, we tally up our total scores and award the top female half and the top male half!
2. We all start the first round with the person we came with/live with/sometimes wish we didn’t live with/and all that other good stuff.
3. We set a timer for 12 minutes and played our brains out to try to get as many rounds in as possible during that time to maximize our points.
4. At the end of the 12 minutes, each person writes down their score on their own scorecard and the couple who lost gets up and goes to the next table while the couple who won stays but each moves one chair to partner with the losers who join the table (meaning you are switching partners every round).
5. We decided to play 10 games which equaled 120 minutes + the downtime in between each game to fill up drinks, break out into song, and refill our plates with nuggets.
6. At the end of the 10 games we had each person tally up their total score and we awarded the top female and the top male with the cash that we initially all put in ($10 per person) meaning they each took away $80 for the night. If you add in My Little Pony crowns or some other fun medal it makes the prize even more exciting to give out.

And that my friends is how to throw a successful game night at home in the easiest way possible. When in doubt, turn to Chick-fil-A catering to make all of your dreams come true. I know it did mine. My newest lifesaver has never been so tasty…

Disclosure: Thank you to Chick-fil-A and ShopStyle for partnering on today’s post.

photos by tina herschberger photography