What a party......

...... how can we possibly top this one..... No one wanted to leave, which is always a sign of a great party. We had mostly everyone still here at midnight... two hours after the music stopped. The music--- we had a four-man New Orleans Dixieland Jazz band here, and they were positively wonderful. They were dressed up in black suits, with white shirts and red bow-ties. A banjo, clarinet, trumpet and a tall stand-up base.... playing everything that would have brought a smile to the face of Louis Armstrong. What a picture they made, near the fireplace at the front of the living room between the ceiling-high fresh tree and the 1950's silver tree.

Everyone was so surprised with the band..... and half of our friends were dancing in whatever spot they could find-- dining room, living room, the breakfast room. The music they played was mostly from the 1940s through the 1970s, with lots of the big-band hits, plus some jazzed-up Christmas songs.

What a night..... such a great party, we're still shaking our heads at how wonderfully everything turned out. The food from our favorite Greek restaurant was delicious, and I'm glad we decided to order much more than we thought we'd need. Wouldn't you know--- everyone who brought something for the buffet table tonight walked in with either a cake or cookies or candy. I am so glad I just baked two cakes and stopped myself before I started to bake dozens of cookies. We thought we'd have many more Greek spinach and cheese pies left, but there's just about six of those left, and the stuffed grape leaves-- only about a dozen of those in the fridge now. Between the Greek food from the restaurant, and the canapes that I made "just in case," we had plenty of food besides all the dessert selections.

Young Miss C was here with four of her friends, and they helped themselves time and again to all of the desserts (even the rum-soaked cake from S & J, I'm afraid to say), so we don't have as much cake left as I thought we'd have, which is a good thing.

I filled up the punch bowl three times tonight....... it looked so pretty with the cherries floating around in it. The hot apple cider was nearly all gone, even though it must have been 85 degrees tonight while the party was going on. And the coffee urn--- best party investment I've ever made.... it makes from 12 to 42 cups of coffee, so all I have to do is fill it up for one of our parties and then everyone helps themselves.

What a night...... not a Charades night, but all of our Charades group was here, and some of them brought either a friend or a family member so we had a full house and then some.

As I'm typing, it's nearly 2:30 in the morning. The living room and dining room is all back to normal..... and so is the breakfast room, and the TV room, where C and her friends were hanging out and playing card games. When I walk inside now, the house won't even look like we just had a huge party here...... but if I listen closely, I will bet that I can still hear the sound of that band.

Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett.