My boyfriend Frank, has hosted a Super Bowl party since before we met, every year for nearly ten years. This year he wanted to do something different, but wasn’t sure what. He looked on the Internet for party themes, but he did not like any of them. Since he is a big fan of mobster movies and especially “The Sopranos”, I suggested he use it his for his party theme.

He was not convinced it was a good idea until I suggested dressing as Al Capone. The guests would dress like mobsters from past or present and we could serve meatball sandwiches and mini pizzas. Everyone could bring rubber tipped dart guns to shoot at the T.V. or at each other. It would be great!

That was all I had to say. Frank took my idea and ran with it. Since most of the guests were from his department at work he sent a singing telegram to announce the party. The singer was dressed like and sang the message like Frank Sinatra. The guys loved it. He also sent invitations to other guests on his list. They were hilarious. On the outside was a close up of a carnation on the lapel of a pinstripe suit. The caption said, “An offer you can’t refuse…”. Inside the party theme, date, time were written. It also said to come in mobster costume and bring a toy gun that shot rubber tipped darts.

Meanwhile, I rented extra chairs and a banquet table, ordered the meatball subs, mini pizzas and garlic bread from a local italian restaurant. I stopped by a bakery to order a cake decorated with the words Frank’s Sopranos Superbowl party. The girl taking the order told me she thought the theme was very original and she wished she had come up with it. I told her to go ahead and use the theme; no one would know she hadn’t thought of it.

The day of the party Frank picked up his Al Capone costume from the shop and left in thelimo he hiredto pick up each guest so they wouldn’t have to worry about a designated driver. Of course, that meant I was left with the work of decorating the living room in crepe paper in the colors of both teams and arranged the chairs in a semi circle around the T.V. To save room in the fridge, I filled the bathtub with ice and put the Corona beer in to chill. There were also several bottles of red Sebastiani wine on the table with the food.

When the guests arrived, they went straight for the food and saw the cake sitting near the table’s edge. It made everyone laugh. The pre-game show was on, but they were only half watching it. Most of the guests ate and mingled with the other mobsters. Some of the guests really got into the theme affecting Italian, New York or New Jersey accents.

Everyone sat down once the game started and they began making penny bets on every part of the Super Bowl, from which team would win the coin toss, who would make the first score and how many Corona beer commercials would be seen. Dart guns went off every time there was a fumble, penalty or touchdown no matter what team had done it.

When the game was over, Frank loaded everyone back into the limo and took them home. Before this party I had always tolerated Frank’s Super Bowl parties as they meant a lot of work and not a lot of fun, but this time I enjoyed myself and that made all the work worth it.