The Aftermath

Yes, we go slightly overboard with decorations around here at this time of year.  Just be happy that I haven't yet managed to get a picture of the newest ones: two large green-glowing electric shamrocks currently hanging in the family room window overlooking the driveway!

Quite a party last night.  The kids (ours and the visitor, the daughter of Himself's best friend) were stowed upstairs with a sitter, and the dog was safely deposited at her sitter's house, far from the noise and confusion of 45 or so adults having a grand old time into the wee hours.  It's rare that we get to see so many friends without the distractions of kids or sporting events or whatever, so we always look forward to the party even though getting ready for it is an undertaking and a half.  Note to any entertainers among you: I tried an experiment this year and cream puffs are really easy to make and look awesome on a dessert table: just sayin'.  A few minutes on the stove, a few minutes in the oven, split, fill and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Nothing to it.  (The bars next to them in this pic are brownies prepared with Bailey's in the batter and more Bailey's in the icing...another winner.  The dessert table contained almost as much alcohol as the bar!)

The friends were really the highlight of the evening.  I keep coming back to the fact that I've lived in this house for almost twice as long as any other place in my life, so this is really the first community we've ever been part of.  Looking around the room last night, I was reminded of how lucky we were to find this place and how much I don't want to leave it.  The icing on the cake was that my Muslim taekwondo instructor friend came by for half an hour...you know that a St. Pat's party is the dead LAST place that an observant Muslim should be (the whole Christian saint thing, plus the whole alcohol thing...) so the fact that she came by at all was the highest of all possible compliments.  And to top it all off, she brought me these as a hostess gift!

I should explain that this woman puts sequins and sparkles on everything she owns, including her headscarves, nunchuks and bowstaff (a six-foot pole used as a weapon in taekwondo.)  It is entirely characteristic of her that she would see something green and sparkly and buy it for me for St. Patrick's Day!  These slippers rock.  :)

Another friend brought this, which is absolutely beautiful:

I will be using it year-round!!  WAY too pretty for only one day a year.

The beer and wine and car bombs and conversation flowed and it was just an awesome night.  We stumbled up to bed about 2AM and are moving very slowly today, but it was 110% worth it.

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In the back-to-reality department, I've been working with Thing One on a Science Fair poster for the last two hours.  Harsh; very harsh.  So much for taking it easy this afternoon!