We spent last weekend after Melenie went home recovering from all the work that went into the party. People did not eat as much this year and it was disappointing.  It felt like a great party and people were lively and interacting with each other and drinking, but not eating a lot.  I will make half the lobster mac and cheese next year if we do the party and I won’t make a chocolate pie.  Maybe no shrimp.  People seem off shrimp. They didn’t eat much of the desserts, either not what I made and not what people brought. Melenie and I exchanged gifts and had time to spend quietly as well as cooking together.  She is off to Paris with Jay for a week.  There’s an apartment they rent in the Marais.

We had a two mouse night. They keep coming in from the woods and Xena and Willow kill them neatly and display them for our enjoyment.  It has turned mild.  Woody actually hopes to get outside today to work in the lower garden, filling the new raised beds he made in November. 

Ons the evening of the 24th, we went to Karen’s house for the feast of the seven fishes, an Italian custom and a great one.  But she and her son Tony, who hasTerra Luna restaurant in North Truro, cooked at least 11 kinds of seafood.  There were raw oysters, clams with chorizo and tomato, salmon pate, fried fresh sardines, fried smelt, bacalao, fish cakes, and much more.  Many desserts, much wine.  It was a very lively evening.  When the other guests left, Karen and Tony insisted we stay on – as family.  So we didn’t get to bed until one of the morning – very unusual for us. A wonderful party, warm people.

The next day we had Dale and Stephen over for supper and the exchange of presents.  Then the great cleanup got going. Not that we didn’t have a lot of cleanup after the solstice party, but Melenie and Gigi and Ralph all helped us do everything except haul 40 bottles to the dump the next morning. And a ton of paper plates.

I have been reading mss. for my June juried intensive poetry workshop.  I’m getting through the pile rather slowly with all else that has been going on.  I am getting some good applications.  I probably won’t read through them until after New Year’s as this seems as if it too will be a very social week. I have other end of the year stuff to do before I get back to the submissions.  Last Monday I did my end of year contributions to various causes. I’ll have a couple more this Monday.  I do tithing every year, but include the contributions I make during the year.

Well, Woody has handed over the presidency of WOMR board toBruce.  During his four years, he guided the station by helping to write their strategic plan and then oversaw their primary goal, a complete replacement of their outdated broadcast equipment.  The process is ongoing but moving forward.  The station is a mess of wires, mics, and computers right now but when everything is completed, they will have a state-of-the-art operation.Now he’s only on the program committee – besides, of course, his two programs a week.

I finally got back to writing this week, revising two poems and writing one new one. It felt good. I’ve enjoyed the holidays greatly this year but I’m beginning to yearn for normality and regular routines.  The living room will feel twice the size after New Year’s Day when we take down the tree – and go to yet another party.  This weekend we’re staying home with no company and catching up a bit.  I have 413 emails I hadn’t had time to process.

And I ate and ate and ate. The season of Way Too Much!