on throwing a neighbourhood party

I wrote this on the 22nd of December but, you know, life and all that. Many of you have been asking how our neighbourhood drop in went and so I wanted to do a bit of a write up for you all. I also wrote this in the hopes that someone may be inspired to do the same and just go for it! 

Jude's got the flu but is finally feeling well enough to cozy up on the couch with some cartoons. Noah is doing the same and Jamie and Blaise are in the basement playing/watching sports {I would imagine}. I am sitting at our dining room table with a freshly brewed cup of coffee now that our power has come back on!

We got hit pretty bad with the ice storm last night and our power conked out this morning but we're hoping it stays on now! {All reminders of being in Uganda with power outages, although I would like a little bit of heat if I'm going to lose power.}

So thankful to have a house and warm clothes and smartphones to stay in contact with the outside world. 

Many of you were wondering how our neighbourhood Christmas drop in party went so I thought I'd update via blog post.

In short, it was perfect. At least that was what Jamie said when all was said and done. And I don't mean perfect in that everything was out of a magazine. No, it was far from that. We don't even have baseboards up in the living/dining room or the guest bathroom. It was beautiful. I guess it was perfectly beautiful. I've been reading a blog where the mantra is, "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." And that's exactly it. I chose to love my home with all it's flaws and "not doneness" and welcome people into our home and our lives. Perfectness only serves to alienate I think. When others see that you are just like them, it helps in providing an atmosphere of authenticity and vulnerability. Okay. I'm done my rant. The nitty gritty:

We had about 10-12 people drop in and most of them stayed for the entire time, which was pretty cool. 

There was music and candles. 

I pulled out a bunch of chairs from the dining table and kitchen into the living room and had the dining table set up buffet style. I put out a few plates of Christmas goodies (including the ginersnap s'mores which were as easy as they were awesome) and had some hot drinks in the kitchen (of which there was way too much left over, but that's part of the guesswork with drop ins). People mostly sat and chatted and the boys ran around (Blaise was in bed before the guests arrived) and snuck extra sweets. 

We engaged in "get to know you" type conversations and I was surprised how often religion and spiritual themes came up. It was interesting and I often found myself just listening to others. Which was great! 

I am so glad I did it and if you've been thinking about doing something or reaching out to someone or you've been dreaming a big dream, Go For It! You won't regret it, but you probably will regret not trying at the very least. 

I will definitely do this again next Christmas and I'm already dreaming up some warm weather get together ideas!