We had our first Christmas party this year. Ben created a beautifully scripted invitation/story that invited people to come and participate and share their images and memories of Christmas with us. We each emailed lots of people the invite and we also delivered several to our neighbors. It was definitely out of people's comfort zones to come over here...most of them didn't know us. We did it open house style and people could come at any time over four days. It was from December 20-23. We had people at different points every day and lots that were here in spirit.
[The pictures are in reverse chronological order]
On the evening of the 22nd, we had a family from around the corner come over AND we had Adam and Liz come into town and stay the night with us before heading down to California for the holiday. We each answered a question out of the jar (to be explained more later) and got to know each other a bit. Their teenage daughter, Brianne (in the greenish jacket and acid wash jeans) had an awesome dog sound (I cannot even call it an imitation, because it was so real sounding!) and the aunt had a stunningly accurate witches cackle. Plus, the dad apparently was once a champion break dancer! We have hopes of witnessing that before too long....
The youngest of the family (it's a husband and wife with their 3 kids (2 of which were not there) and the husbands sister with her 2 kids (both of whom were there...the little girl and the teenager in the white shirt) that live in a house around the corner) really warmed up to Liz and spent most of the evening on her lap :). Adam took the above group photos...so, he isn't in it.
On the 21st, Ben's mom Debbie came out with our niece and 2 of our nephews (Jake & Jamie's kiddos) and brought along the family friend, Travis (whom we have really enjoyed getting to know!!). I got a call at work that we had a surprise and I walked in to Ben reading a Christmas story to them and Bayley playing sweetly with the math game. The kids were so fun! Spencer couldn't wait until Brennan and Kaia got out of school and we all walked over to get them together right at 2:40. Then, I took Bayley with me to get Elise from daycare and they were just the cutest pair. Sadly, Debbie and Travis and the kids headed back that afternoon (all the way back to Vernal!), but it was really wonderful having them come out for a few hours!
is of Ben's friend Rochelle and her wife. They were the most fascinating couple and we really enjoyed visiting with them! They are both healers and ordained ministers and we were able to
have lots of captivating conversation.
Next, are a couple of pictures of Elise that just made me smile. The first is of her dancing while we played the Dancing Game that I had invented a few days prior. The second is of her pouting. Something about her in a Christmas dress, pouting in front of a Christmas tree...seemed funny to me :). Besides, I know that she was being melodramatic :)...
Also on Sunday, were Cheryl and Jeff. They are brother and sister. Jeff used to work on a lobster boat in Alaska. He got into an accident at some point and the medication they used caused brain damage and he went into a coma. When he came out of the coma, one of the only people he remembered was Cheryl. Even though they had only reconnected as brother and sister well into their adulthood, Cheryl had Jeff come live with her. That was about 3 years ago. They were both charming personalities and had lots of interesting and fun things to visit about. They were so excited and they really had enjoyed Ben's invitation.
They were very creative and generous. They brought us each a Christmas treat and a Christmas pencil. They also gifted us with a poem Cheryl had written a few years ago about Christmas. They also gave us a jar filled with dozens of strips of colored paper with questions on the strips. It was so thoughtful! They created all these questions, cut them out and put them in a jar. We used that jar with everyone after that! Every group that came through, without fail, answered a question from the jar. There are some really solid questions, too :).
The next pic is Cheryl with her spiked cocoa. Next is some visiting time. The following photo is as Cheryl got up to play the dancing game with us and Jeff grooved from his seat.
You know, it was out of the norm. It wasn't traditional. And, it was one of the best beginnings for a worthwhile tradition that I've come across. It felt really good to begin to scratch the surface of getting to know people and breaking out of some of our societal 'norms'. I think for Ben, it was frustrating at times because he could imagine so much more. But, for now-this was a really good start and a fun way to practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment