The Christmas Party

Sorry I have not posted these earlier. CLOSE your EYES for this next part Honey --that's you Dave---

but I have been spending all my free time shopping for Christmas presents on-line and spending exorbitant shipping fees to get them here on time. I have also been frantically trying to wrap gifts and get the Christmas cards out. I ordered more of those too and had to have them rush shipped. Where the heck did December go? I am going to be so much more organized next year. Hey, stop laughing. Seriously, I am.

Okay, now onto the parties. Let me set the scene for you....

This was what it looked like right outside our front door on Friday morning.

I stayed calm. But then, I looked out the window at about 3:00 in the afternoon and this is what the sidewalk in front of our house looked like....

I am totally serious. AND they did not fill it in before they quit for the night. Nor did they cover it. The workers just put some orange netting around it. Still, I kept my composure. Dave and I figured that our friends who really liked us would somehow get here.

Dave mowed a path through some neighbors yards and lit it with lantern candles (that did not stay lit). At party time, Will was outside with flashlights guiding our friends from adjacent roads to our house.

I put this sign outside our front door hoping people might leave their muddy, gravelly shoes outside...but no one did.

Dave and I before our guests arrived.

With the kids just before the partygoers arrived. Will was outside guiding people to our house.

Harry greeted guests and was our coat check man. He took coats and purses and wrote last names on a post-it. Then, he put them all over our bedroom with the post its. I went upstairs at one point to find a mink or two on my bedroom floor (which had just been cleaned;)

I did not get that many photos of the party. These are from just as the party was beginning. Once people started arriving I did not have a second. And the ones I got are not very good quality (low lighting). There were A LOT of people. There were some people there that my husband never even saw.

It looked and sounded as though people had a great time. There was a lot of laughter and people complimented us repeatedly on the food, company and our home. My favorite parts were looking around and seeing all of our friends enjoying themselves and hearing so many kind things being said about Will and Harry. They really were super helpful and polite. This is the first party of ours where we have let them be involved. Our guests commented over and over again how respectful, cute and polite they were. Kate had a little cold and was upstairs asleep for most of the party:)

The next day was Harry's birthday party. More on that tomorrow.