New Years Eve 2014 / Drinking Games

Both myself and the Mr are massive tv and movie fans but rarely get through more than one episode of something on any given evening. As a result there are tonnes of TV show box sets accumulated on our Sky Planner.

Mr F came up with a plan for how we could spend New Years – we’d attempt to watch the season seven part one box set of Mad Men whilst playing a drinking game that he’d devised.
If you haven’t seen Mad Men, then I’ll do my best to summarise without giving away any spoilers:

It follows top Ad Man Don Draper (played by the very dapper and charismatic John Hamm) as he smokes, drinks and sleeps his way through the fifties and sixties at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue (hence the title). Apart from having original and engaging storylines and the most wonderful rounded characters, I also love it for the gorgeous costume design, hair, makeup and set pieces. It’s hugely stylish and makes you wistfully daydream of living in New York in that era.

Back then it was perfectly acceptable to smoke and drink in the office and this is where Mr F’s idea for the drinking game came into play – we decided we would do a shot every time one of the characters has a drink!

Bearing in mind that neither of us typically drink all that much (I like a bit of bubbly when we go out and the occasional glass of wine at home whilst Mr F prefers coffee!) this had the potential to get messy very quickly, but also sounded like a lot of fun!

Mr F was tasked with picking up the booze for our night in and returned with Vodka Sourz and something called ‘Odka’ which turned out to be ‘toffee popcorn flavoured vodka’. Not exactly what I would have chosen, but it would do!

To keep with the theme, Mr F fashioned a retro style wicker ‘bar’ for our drinks and snacks.

I made the gourmet classic… ‘cheese and pineapple on a stick.’

I also hulled out some cherry tomatoes and filled them with cream cheese and pesto, accompanied by sliced cucumber and feta cheese and basil… as Ron Burgundy would say: ‘stay classy!’

We settled down to watch the first episode and waited for the first drink to be poured. The theme of the episode turned out to be sobriety and no one touched a drop for the whole hour!

After worrying that we might have to change the rules, someone finally poured the whisky in episode two. With a clink, we both took our first shot, followed shortly by our second – the game was on!

As it turns out, we made it through SIX episodes before deciding to finish the bottle with 3 straight shots each just before midnight. I think you can tell by the Mr’s face how that went!

We made it upstairs just in time for midnight and the turn of the year. As the clock chimed, I turned to Mr F to wish him a happy new year… and found him passed out on the bed! “Wake up, you’re missing the fireworks!” I whispered. “It’s okay,” he mumbled, “I’ve recorded it,” before passing out again. What a lightweight 😉

Hope you all had a fantastic New Years Eve, whatever you got up to!

xoxo