Gatherings

By the numbers:

Two gatherings.  Fifty-two total guests over the two days (25 of whom were children). Five varieties of soup.  At least 14 varieties of pastry.  Two full cleanings of the house.  Six loads of dishes.  Hundreds of conversations.  One nerf battle.  Ten games of Katamari. Thirty minutes of sledding in the biting wind.

One amazing weekend.

January so far, in pictures.

New Year's Day visit to Lakewood...

Starting the year with cleaning and organizing the basement.  We've a bit of a rec room down there now, and its no longer so gross that I cringe whenever anyone threatens to go down stairs.

A fun, if BUSY day at the Winter Wonderland exhibit at Penitentiary Glen.  The "Candyland" room we went to see was so crowded it wasn't even fun-- but we had a wonderful hour with a scavenger hunt before that.  I often forget how much my children love scavenger hunts....

 A visit from our lovely friend Donna and her new puppy!

Also,  I am learning to crochet.  I made that funny looking little hat on Ivy's doll! It's pretty fun, actually, this crocheting...

 Observation night at Ivy's ballet class.

And... Saturday morning!  House clean and shiny and dressed in its Christmas best, ready to welcome one last holiday event...

Fake Christmas Morning!

 One of my favorite days of the year, with some of my very favorite people...

It was a nearly perfect day.  SO much coffee, yummy food, endless pastries, laughing and talking and talking with these great people. All day in our jammies.  Yes.

Sunday-- Snow!   We snuck out for a few minutes of sledding in the frigid temps because the children COULD NOT WAIT.  Also, we've got this adorable new boarder staying with us. She's an exchange student from Hong Kong and she'd never seen snow before.  We took her sledding too.  She loved it. It is so fun to watch someone who is having a completely NEW experience.

Second Sunday Soup-- the first of the year, and off to a stellar start. What a housefull!  Raucous fun in the basement, with drumming and gaming and pretend play and LOTS of fooseball making all  of our cleaning pay off.

 Jack earned the name "Fooseball master" and for quite some time, chants of "Ja-ack!  Ja-ack" echoed up the stairs.  He was glowing with the praise...

There's been a lot of love in this house so far this year.  2016, I think you're going to be OK.

New Year

 Happy New Year!

It's 2016!  Unimaginable, really.  It seems like a moment ago that we were wondering at 2015.   It has been an extraordinarily fast 365 days.  I think I say that every year.  I am CERTAIN I say it every year.  But I mean it this year.  I blinked and we were here.

 We were here, at the annual "New Toddler's Eve" party.  Except there aren't many toddlers any more in this group.  Just these tall lovely children who disperse to playrooms and basements (and in some cases bathrooms, where Jack and Greg hid to trade Pokemon cards for a while) and leave the adults to drink cosmos and eggnog and catch up with friends from near and far.

And did I mention the cosmos?

We even danced.

 It was a REAL party, I tell ya.

Even if half the guest list was under the age of 9.

And even if we were home by 10pm.

We still rang in the new year with style.  And with some wonderful, wonderful friends. How deeply grateful I am for the friendships we forged all those years ago at a little utopian college...

And then we came home and played Candyland, and drank cocoa, and let the kids stay up til midnight while we watched old episodes of America's Funniest Videos.

We jumped into the new year holding some silver and watching Times Square on a laptop screen.
And how happy I was in that moment, to be here, with these people I love, in this home so safe and warm, a new year spread out before us.

And writing resolutions was so easy because why do I need to change a thing?