The party is now a memory...

We all say it each and every year... Christmas comes and goes faster and faster as you get older. And our Christmas party, after all these weeks of decorating and planning, has come and gone. The party was wonderful... we have such a great group of friends here, and some of our friends brought friends of theirs so we had some new faces here.

We also had the Jamaican steel drum musicians..... a brother and sister who played here for another one of our Christmas parties a few years ago. Beautiful music-- they played holiday songs and Beach-Boy Caribbean tunes. So very pretty, everything they played for us. They were here for two hours, with a break inbetween when they got to talk to everyone and have something to eat and answer everyone's questions about their music and the instruments.

And, as it always happens, no one wanted the party to end. Our friends who live downtown are always the first to leave, because of the long drive home, and then our older friends are always the next to say goodnight. The friends and neighbors who live the closest are usually the last ones to leave, and we all just sit around talking about the party, or the last party, or When's the next party? Before our friend J walked out the door, he asked us if he should mark his calendar for the Valentine's party in February. And we told him the same thing we always tell him: "What time should we be at your house for that, J?"

Our neighbor J couldn't come to the party because of her recent hospital stay last week, plus the passing of her little dog, which is what put her in the hospital in the first place, I think. I went over to see her today, along with some canapes and desserts from last night, and a couple of little holiday gifts to cheer her up. She was very sorry to have missed the music and the party, but I told her to come by for tea as soon as she's up to it, and we're hoping by the end of the week she'll be able to do that. She's just a couple of streets away, but she just wasn't "feeling 100%," as she calls it. She truly misses her little dog, and I have to say that her house seemed terribly lonely today without little Babe running around by our feet. J had that little Yorkie for over 14 years, so it's going to take a while for her to get used to not having her.

Our around-the-corner friend V stopped by today with a friend of hers, to show her our tree. This is about the sixth friend of V's that I've met this way-- when V wants to show off our tree, as she says. I told V it isn't that she wants so much to show her friends our tree-- it's that she is missing having a tree of her own this year, so she's making up for it by visiting ours. V's son and his big dog are there visiting, and so far the dog is well-behaved, but V just doesn't want to take a chance by putting up a big tree. V says that "the big dog's big tail is like a weapon-- knocks over everything in sight." So she's "making do" with all her little table-top trees, but it just isn't the same.

Very warm yesterday, and today as well. The cold snap has snapped itself out, and it's been humid and muggy and nearly summer-y. And wasn't it just a few days ago when we had nearly half an inch of snow on the lawn?