Ladies Circle

A week or so ago I decided that I wanted to get a group of women together on a regular basis to have some girl time. I live on the perfect street for this because many of the women are already close and they want to hang out with each other. Knowing that women often don't do the things they want to do because of all the things they have to do, I figured that if I hosted something maybe the ladies would stop by. I knocked on doors over the weekend and handed out invitations. Everyone was warm and enthusiastic about the idea.

Last Tuesday was our first get together. Four ladies came and it was lovely. The invitation said to bring whatever crafty thing you wanted to work on, that I had plenty of table space and lighting and we could scrapbook or crochet or whatever. Not everyone is crafty but those of us who are love a reason to sit down and work on our favorite project. I personally love crochet and cross stitch but I have attended scrapbooking crops with my crochet bag just to hang out with friends. I wanted this group to be open and welcoming to any of the ladies whether they were crafters or not. For the first night we ended up sitting at my kitchen table eating the snacks I had prepared and getting to know each other.

I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle names in this blog as I use pseudonyms for everyone except my dog and myself. I think I will confuse myself if I make up names for these ladies as I am still learning their names, not to mention the fact that I don't know them well enough to make up a new name for them! Let's try descriptions for now.

One lady is a Puerto Rican attorney with three kids. She is the type of person who questions everything, she has a very inquisitive mind and is very smart. Maybe The Closer fits her. She isn't crafty so I told her she could read to us. Before you know it we will be wearing hoop skirts and stitching by kerosene lantern.

Guest number two is a lovely British transplant who has lived in the states for over 50 years. She is small and delicate and soft spoken and yet she shocked us all by announcing that she wants to be on Dancing with the Stars! How about Ginger for Ginger Rogers, the most famous dancer I can think of...

Guests three and four are a mother and daughter originally from Indiana. The mother lives in the basement of her daughter's house with her husband of 59 years who is suffering from alzheimers. We will call her The Preacher's Wife. The daughter lives upstairs with her husband and four children, for now I'll call her the Preacher's Kid or PK.

The ladies were all completely lovely and everyone was enthusiastic about having this kind of a get together. I never specified whether I wanted to do it every Tuesday, but I think I do. This week only the Preacher's Wife came, as I said I never specified so I imagine Ginger wasn't sure whether or not I was doing it again. PK send word (and cookies) through her mom that she couldn't make it. I didn't hear from The Closer or any of the other ladies from further down the street, but I'm gonna make sure everyone knows this weekend that it will be a weekly thing.

PW and I had a lovely visit. We sat in my office/craft room and I cross stitched while she told me about her life. I asked about her children and her siblings and just let her entertain me. I don't know why I wasn't in the mood to chatter like I normally do, but I was much happier listening than talking last night. This was more noticeable later when PW left and I called the girl who lives directly across from me. She is my closest friend so far on the street. She is adorable. She is a stay at home mom of three and is orginally from this area which is unusual in the DC suburbs. Let's call her Patsy. I love that name. I called Patsy when PW left, to offer her some of the brownies I had made for everyone. She has not been able to come either week because her husband is in crunch time at his work and comes home late. Last week I took her a plate of snacks and told her all about it, this week we talked on the phone for an hour. Well, she talked, I listened. About halfway through she said "I'm babbling, usually you chew my ear off and this time I'm doing all the talking." As I said, for some reason I was just in a listening mood. It was a lovely way to spend a rainy evening, cross stitching on a project I haven't touched in months and gabbing on the phone with a girlfriend, something that no one seems to have time for anymore!

Wonderful Life?

Hi All,

It is 6pm Sunday and I am happy to announce that I am finally succeeding in losing weight.  I am the lightest I have been in 3 years!  I had lost another pound when I weighed myself this morning at Sheldon's house.

I have had an interesting weekend, Sheldon's ex-wife had a holiday party last night for all the foster kids they have taken in over the years.  She specifically invited me and I was honored to be included.  It was a lively group and my eyes were opened as they usually are when you meet someone in person that you have been hearing about for months.  Sheldon commented later on how quiet I was, but there was little for me to say and it was quite entertaining watching all of the boys telling stories on each other and cracking themselves up.

Today Sheldon finally made me sit through "It's a Wonderful Life".  He couldn't BELIEVE that I had never seen it (you probably can't either) as it is one of his all time favorite movies.  He has been quoting lines from it to me the whole time I have known him.  Most of the movie is sad and dark, dreams deferred, dreams lost, etc.  I couldn't believe that it was a Christmas movie, much less that it was his favorite.  In the end, of course, everything comes out all right and George realizes how lucky he is...but personally I still feel sorry for him.  Sheldon compares me to George and says that I am wealthy in friends if not in dollars, and although I appreciate every single one of my friends, I won't be asking them to help me pay my mortgage, ya know?

The International Feast

It is the Saturday night after Thanksgiving, the traditional night of the International Feast.  Never heard of it?  Well if you were part of my extended family and friends you would know exactly what I am talking about.  Ten years or so ago I started a tradition that grew and grew and grew.  Then my marriage broke up and the tradition died with it.  It didn't have to die, I just didn't have the heart to do it the first year and haven't felt the need since then.  Today is the first time I have actually missed it.

The way it started is that my brother was visiting from Florida and my cousin was visiting from Colorado that first year.  Both my parents and my aunt and uncle are divorced so the two boys were gonna have 2 turkey dinners each.  I wanted to get all of us together but obviously I didn't want to serve another turkey dinner.  So I came up with the "anything but American food" idea.  Not that I don't like American food, I do...but I wanted a theme for my party and that seemed like a good one.  I only invited my grandmother, mother, sister, brother, dad, cousin and aunt that first year and they all came.  I told them that they could bring anything they wanted but it had to be from another country and then I gave them a list of possibilities, such as Swedish Meatballs.  I bought a sushi platter from my favorite sushi restaurant, a selection of imported cheeses and crackers from the grocery store, chicken kabobs and hummus from my favorite Afghan restaurant and a few other items.  My mom brought Danish ham rolls, my sister brought Spanish clementines etc.  The food was a hit and the party was fun.  

Later when I told my friends what I had done they all thought it was a fabulous idea and wanted to be invited the next year.  So, when November rolled around again I sent invitations out to a larger crowd.  Because I live close to the nations capital I also have lots of friends from other countries and most of us have lots of different nationalities in our family tree, so soon I had quite a menu with special items from Brazil, Ukraine, Italy and other countries.  That second year I went to a local flag store and bought the flags that represented the guests who were coming.  Now a new tradition was born and I continued to collect small flags and ornaments from as many countries as I could find to decorate the house.  One year I put my Christmas tree up before the party and decorated it with white lights and all the flags.  It was my International Tree and I loved it.  

At about this same time I was taking a Folklore class at GMU and we had to do a paper on a family tradition that we had started or witnessed, so of course I had the perfect topic.  Needless to say I got an A on that paper!!

The party grew and grew, the last year that we had it we actually rented a local hall that has a homey feel and a fireplace at either end.  We had a huge crowd that year and had tons of fun and tons of food.  

And then...my marriage ended, I stopped celebrating Christmas altogether and I never had another International Feast.  Today I am thinking that it is time to revive the tradition.  I'm not sure if I will wait til next Thanksgiving or plan one sooner.  Have to think on that.  If I do it again, do you want to come???