Party

Tomorrow is our annual Holiday Open House. We've done this for about 12 years--invite everyone we know, make huge amounts of food, and stay open from 2-8pm. The last time we did this in New York (just before Spouse moved out here with us to follow) we had upwards of 80 people over the course of the day. So I spend several days cooking and cleaning, and many hours fuming because no one else is working as hard as I am...and if I'm cooking I don't necessarily have the time to explain to everyone how to pick up the clothes in their rooms or why the dog cannot be allowed into the soggy back yard and then back into the house unless someone wants to wash the floors again...

The menu (YG is busily making name tags) is: turkey, ham, lox, bagels, chili (vegetarian and carnivore's), green salad, fruit salad, bread, cheese, crackers, chips, salsa, chocolate bread, gingerbread, pumpkin bread, lemon bread, banana bread, spice cookies, chocolate chip cookies, wine, beer, hard cider, soda, juice, coffee and tea.

Tomorrow night the children will have crankily crawled off to watch TV. I will be in my nightgown. Spouse will be washing dishes.

And the Christmas season will have officially begun chez nous.