Party Report #3
For our final report of the week, we have "John & Denine's Annual Cookie Exchange" party. This is the holiday party that I most look forward to every year. Maybe because it's attended 95% by people I don't know, and that's refreshing sometimes. Plus, you know, the cookies!
John & Denine are old acquaintances of ours. They used to play volleyball with Jason when they were first married before they moved to the suburbs. They are both lawyers (real estate and employment issues respectively) and John was our lawyer when we closed on our first house. These days, their Cookie Exchange party is the only time we see them all year. But I love going and am always excited to get their invitation in the mail.
They have two beautiful daughters, slightly older than my kids, who are the picture of little girls in party dresses with curly hair and big grey eyes. So I told Bryn if she wanted to dress up fancy, tonight was the night to do it.
I am not a mingler. I am a wallflower. Having children is an excellent buffer for a wallflower because if someone tries to strike up a conversation, you can just lean over intently to your child and ask if they need to go to the bathroom, or if they need more punch, and then shuffle away just as easy as you please. That usually works for about 10 minutes until the kids have had their fill of cookies and run off to the basement kids' area. Then Jason and I usually wander around from corner to corner and comment on the social habits of all the people at the party that we don't know and make small talk with each other. In past years, people have trapped engaged us in conversations detailing way more of their life stories than we were really interested in, but this year there were so many more people there that we were able to slip around relatively unnoticed. Eventually, when we're too full to even look at another cookie, we'll make our way down to the kids' room and watch them all beat each other up play for a while.
And now, on to the cookies facts:
1. I broughtmadlori's Death by Chocolate cookies (my new favorite).
2. I counted 32 different plates of cookies, most of which were delectable and delightful. However, they also included:
- 6 plates of plain chocolate chip cookies or slight variations thereof. (Now really. If you're going to actually take the time to bake [see below], you can't come up with something more interesting than chocolate chip?)
- 4 plates of store-bought cookies (Alright, we know you're all upper-middle-class suburbanites and we don't expect you all to know how to bake. But for heaven's sake, store bought cookies! Just don't bring anything, we won't hold it against you!)
- 2 plates that looked suspiciously like they had just come from another Cookie Exchange party as they contained several varieties of a few cookies each. (Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.)
3. In addition to the cookies, there was 1 tray of different kinds of pound cakes that may have been store-bought, but I couldn't tell, a large tray of Rocher hazelnut chocolates, and chocolate-dipped pretzels.
So far, you may be asking yourself why this is my favorite party ever. Well, I've just figured it out. It's because even though we see John & Denine only for a few minutes a year, as soon as we walk in their door, it's like we're their long lost friends finally come home and they throw their arms around us and play with our kids and put drinks in our hands. They are just so genuine and loving and really good people. And that's why all of those people keep coming back to their party year after year.
. . . .
John & Denine are old acquaintances of ours. They used to play volleyball with Jason when they were first married before they moved to the suburbs. They are both lawyers (real estate and employment issues respectively) and John was our lawyer when we closed on our first house. These days, their Cookie Exchange party is the only time we see them all year. But I love going and am always excited to get their invitation in the mail.
They have two beautiful daughters, slightly older than my kids, who are the picture of little girls in party dresses with curly hair and big grey eyes. So I told Bryn if she wanted to dress up fancy, tonight was the night to do it.
I am not a mingler. I am a wallflower. Having children is an excellent buffer for a wallflower because if someone tries to strike up a conversation, you can just lean over intently to your child and ask if they need to go to the bathroom, or if they need more punch, and then shuffle away just as easy as you please. That usually works for about 10 minutes until the kids have had their fill of cookies and run off to the basement kids' area. Then Jason and I usually wander around from corner to corner and comment on the social habits of all the people at the party that we don't know and make small talk with each other. In past years, people have trapped engaged us in conversations detailing way more of their life stories than we were really interested in, but this year there were so many more people there that we were able to slip around relatively unnoticed. Eventually, when we're too full to even look at another cookie, we'll make our way down to the kids' room and watch them all beat each other up play for a while.
And now, on to the cookies facts:
1. I broughtmadlori's Death by Chocolate cookies (my new favorite).
2. I counted 32 different plates of cookies, most of which were delectable and delightful. However, they also included:
- 6 plates of plain chocolate chip cookies or slight variations thereof. (Now really. If you're going to actually take the time to bake [see below], you can't come up with something more interesting than chocolate chip?)
- 4 plates of store-bought cookies (Alright, we know you're all upper-middle-class suburbanites and we don't expect you all to know how to bake. But for heaven's sake, store bought cookies! Just don't bring anything, we won't hold it against you!)
- 2 plates that looked suspiciously like they had just come from another Cookie Exchange party as they contained several varieties of a few cookies each. (Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.)
3. In addition to the cookies, there was 1 tray of different kinds of pound cakes that may have been store-bought, but I couldn't tell, a large tray of Rocher hazelnut chocolates, and chocolate-dipped pretzels.
So far, you may be asking yourself why this is my favorite party ever. Well, I've just figured it out. It's because even though we see John & Denine only for a few minutes a year, as soon as we walk in their door, it's like we're their long lost friends finally come home and they throw their arms around us and play with our kids and put drinks in our hands. They are just so genuine and loving and really good people. And that's why all of those people keep coming back to their party year after year.
. . . .