Journal Entry

:: Holidays ::

We're back from the holidays. Actually, we've been back for several days. Only now do I feel decompressed enough to do some writing about it.

This years marked the second time my family hosted the huge mini-reunion New Year party we called PartY2K. This year it was Party2K2. Many were invited, many showed up. We had something on the order of sixteen guests over the course of three or four days.

The main purpose of these gatherings (other than playing big games of Balderdash, of course) is to see all the people we miss from college. We're a pretty tight group, but we're not as good as we might like to be about keeping in the touch the normal way: email, letter-writing, phone calls, and that sort of thing. It's the sort of group where we can get together after (in some cases) not having seen each other for a year or more, and it's as if no time has passed. Beautiful.

Then, of course, there were the couple of people I really hadn't seen in years, or whom I had seen maybe a couple times in my life. It's interesting when you remember liking someone the first time you meet them, but they impress you even more when you spend a few days together.

As much for my own benefit as yours, I'm going to write down all the things we did.

We'll skip the "planning" stages and cut straight to the chase.

December 30. Lisa and I pick up around the house (not much to do, really, it's a pretty clean house being so new), shop for a bunch of food, hope that everyone will make it safely. We have no idea how many people are really going to show up. We know there are ten in Boston, two in NH, one coming in from Pittsburgh by plane. Maybe more.

At 4:30 the call comes in that the Boston crew are just leaving (at noon, they said the same thing). Turns out Keith's car died, and they had to rent one. These are some serious friends I have. Eventually everyone made it, and we had some tasty pizza.

Who all was there by that night? Lis, Troy, Brian, Daisy, Evan, Hawk, Keith, Ross, Kristen, Sheby, Craig, Dave, Rebecca, Lisa, me. My brother came for some of the madness too, so we had a bunch.

Things we did:

• Went sledding on "Transformer Hill". Transformer Hill is the crown jewel of sledding in Tuftonboro, a treacherously steep hill. The day we went, it had just rained on our snow, so it was a little bit crusty and icy. Daisy and Lis shot video of us wiping out, and I hope to have a copy to link to or post.
• Played Scattergories. Evan received Scattergories, and had never played before, so we played. We thought it would be more fun to play with our own categories, so we sat around for an hour brainstorming new ones. Some examples:
  • Porn Star Names (Bruce Strongwood was a favorite)
  • Failed Cereals (Crispy Chiggers)
  • Names For A New Planet
  • Dubious Superheroes
• Played Balderdash
• Watched Movies, including the Eddie Izzard DVD that at least four people picked up over the holidays
• Ate Food. Oh, did we eat. We cooked and ate so much food, it was embarrassing. We also drank some beverages, but not nearly as much as the food. We made burritos, falafel, lasagna, sesame noodles, pierogis, muffins, brownies, and more.

The best part of the whole thing, of course, was to see everyone. We're already thinking of where we're going to do it next year (Ann Arbor, Michigan is at the top of our list--right, Brian?), who we're going to coerce into coming who couldn't make it this year (right, Mary?), and more.

It's too hard for me to capture the festivities in words, but I'm so glad we were able to do it. Thanks for my dad and stepmother for letting us host it at their house and to all my friendly friends who travelled out to the woods to be there. Yay!