Party animals

We've been busy this weekend attending Christmas festivities at the houses of others, since we can't ever seem to keep ours clean long enough to have a party in it. Does anyone sense a new year's resolution coming on?

Last night we went to our friend Eva and Molly's house for their annual holiday party. We went last year, too. It is always a wild affair, one that is attended by the entire University physics department as well as Eva and Molly's mommy's vast network of mommy-friends. It think it is not unreasonable to suggest there were more than 50 people in their decently-sized two story home. Their daddy is an accomplished piano player and leads the house in carol-singing throughout the night. There is a truckload of pizza, wine, things covered in chocolate. It is the classy, grown-up version of a frat-house kegger.

Certainly we are not ones to say no to a party, especially one with free pizza and other people's toys. We went and had a good time and screamed at our kids to share those toys! and chatted with some of an outer circle of mommy friends. But those kinds of parties are really not our faves. In parties that large, we find it's actually harder to talk to people, because it's either too loud or because the sheer frightening numbers force people into cliques that they don't leave. That's right -- we're total squares. Daddy and I somehow never found ourselves at frat parties. We always leaned towards the parties that involved less than eight people, you know, the kind where the entertainment was provided by Taboo, Trivial Pursuit, or that Indiana staple, Euchre.

Today we went to a party at Camille and Noah's house, where they fed us roasted beast, potatoes, salad, noodles, bread, and wine. Including us, there were three families of four there, plus one single. We sat down to dinner, and the kids took turns refusing to eat anything and vacating the table. We played with their toys and talked in-depth with grown-ups we didn't know. It was pretty awesome. It's the kind of party I hope to host one day, when I get around to sanitizing our crap shack.