Today, my feet hurt every time I start to walk. After a few steps they're okay, but they're still recovering from last night. Tree Trimming sans tree was a huge success (in my mind, anyway)--about 55 people plus ten little people who for the first time had their own separate buffet (the adults kept eating the pigs in a blanket). My brother's entire family, almost, was here, like a family reunion, though they see each other often. Jordan worried about adults to supervise the children so no child ate too many cookies--no need to worry. There were twice the adults in the playroom as the children. Jacob ate two sugar cookies (sugar high), had so much fun with his cousin Edie, that he was devastated when it was time to go home.
The adults had a good time--many said they look forward to this as their favorite party of the year, and there were compliments on the food, though it was mostly stuff I serve year after year--cheese ball (my mom's recipe), chili-cheese dip, salmon spread, sausage balls, lots and lots of white wine and a bit of red (some of which ended mysteriously on the T-shirt I put on to clean up). The party began at 5:00 and some folks left pretty quickly, for other engagements as I'd anticipated, but others stayed. It finally ended up that Jordan and her friends sat around until 9 or after, and then Jamie was here until almost 11:30 setting up my new, very fast computer (if my typing is off, blame it on a new keyboard to which I'm adjusting). This is the annual time when I see people I don't see very often and see others I see frequently but they mingle with friends they only see here--it's a good, warm, nice time. In her gratitude log today Elizabeth was grateful for a party with lots of friends and lots of laughter--she emphasized the latter. Made me feel good.
I meant to ask Jordan to take pictures but forgot and got none. Oh, well, next year. Bless Susan, who washed dishes while I put leftovers away--without her I'd have been in the kitchen until all hours. Jay contributed by keeping the children amused cutting small paper plates into snowflakes--with the result of little white triangles all over everywhere. Jordan enlisted all the children to clean up the playroom at the end of the evening, although when I asked Edie if she was helping, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "No." Little imp! By the time her daddy took her home, she was one tired puppy.
And so was I. It was midnight before I got to bed. I forgot to feed Scooby until about ten and he was really mad at me, dumped his dish over and ate off the steps, etc. This morning I slept until 8:30 but he refused to go out until almost ten--as though he were saying, "I haven't had long enough in this bed."
So today I'm moving slowly, although the laundry is doing, the house is almost back to normal, and I've written email thank you notes to those who brought hostess gifts--at least those I could identify. A bonus: my brother found a copy of the cookbook our mother put together for the hospital auxiliary--he labeled it a package "From Grandmother" and I've been prowling through it--there I am in print for the first time, with a garlic cheese hot dip written and signed in the roundish writing of a young person: Judy MacBain. Our mom's cheese ball is there, along with lots and lots of names I recognize from my childhood, plus some of my distant aunts' names (in Mom's handwriting) and some anonymous cooking tips from Penelope Jones who was, I happen to know, Mom.
Tonight Jacob will spend the night and then it will be into the busy week as usual. And it looks to be a busy one indeed.
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