This is the one time of year we invite a large number of people into our home. I send out 40 - 50 invitations to our holiday open house. Some years we get a large crowd, some years much less. This was a year when less people stop by, but the people who did come made it unforgettable!
We had the usual family, moms, dads, sister, niece, aunt, uncle, boss, bosses family... Word about the niece, I served her alcohol for the first time ever. Somehow she managed to turn 21 last January and I didn't know it... Last January?! Where does the time go?
We had two very special guests! First I have to give you a little back story, which is interesting because I was already planning to blog this story in the future. I guess the future has arrived!! One of my early childhood memories involves one of the guests who showed up at our party.
D and I used to walk to school together everyday starting in kindergarten! Our moms must have met at a school function and got to talking about how my mom doesn't drive and how she had to walk me to school everyday and how she HATES getting up in the morning (ok, that last part is me editorializing, but she might have said that!). D's mom probably mentioned that D walks to school and suggested since we only live two blocks apart we could walk together.
Each morning my mom would walk me to the sidewalk in front of our house and watch me walk two blocks down the hill to meet D. From D's house it was only a couple more blocks to school. The last block always seemed to be wet and full of slugs. We made a game out of walking on that block, a game of avoiding those slugs at all costs, jumping, skipping, walking around, you name it we did it, anything to avoid stepping on what seemed to be a million slugs. I seem to remember D maybe, possibly, poking sticks into the slugs and me being really grossed out. I'm sure, since he was a boy, he did that!
In the second grade he moved away and we lost touch. We found each other again in junior high and spent those years, plus high school, hanging out, saying "hey" in the halls and having a few classes together here and there.
Well that boy man D, who I walked through slugland with, showed up at our party with his wonderful wife P. D is the one person I'm still in contact with who I've known longer than anyone I'm not related to. Thankfully he showed up while my parents were there so they could see him too.
The other guest was a total shocker! We have a rental house in the next town south of us and our renter works with someone I went to high school with. That's not how she ended up being our renter, if was just one of those "small world" moments. She brought my friend N as a surprise and surprised I was!! N was one of those high school friends who I just connected with. She was one of those "girlfriends" who you pass notes, letters and cards to in the hall between classes. Who you talk about boys with endlessly. If we were teen friends today we would have thousands of text messages to each other. I'm sure you had one of those friends too! I didn't mention this to her when she was here, but I still have many of the notes, letters and cards she passed to me!
It was great to spend time with both D and N! I hope it's not 10 years before we all see each other again!
Why do my friends look so much better than me?! Thank goodness Asthmagirl got rid of the two inches of gray that was hanging out of my scalp! Man that would have been embarrassing seeing old friends like that!
(To see my daily photo go here.)
