Fairy Houses

I grew up in the age of the Cocktail Party. I remember being sent to bed (along with my brothers) while the grownups laughed and carried on at the front of the house, about once a month as the drinks rotation passed through my parents' home.

Finally realizing I had an expectation that as an adult, I'd be having parties filled with laughter and fun, I'm saying yes to having events such as this weekend's big feast (we carved up a 25 pound organic turkey!) as well as making gingerbread houses yesterday. I was a big hit with the grown-ups as I was pouring Irish Coffees. We only went through half a bottle of Bushmills, but it mellowed us out just enough to be really patient with all the little fingers and the icing and the waiting for parts to set up.

Clare spearheaded the decorating, in that she kept talking about it until we made it happen. I invited the neighbor kids from the cohousing, and we made "fairy houses."

George put in his two cents worth: "I've been learning a lot about how toxic sugar is to the body, so I think it's a good idea if the children don't eat any of the candy."

"There's organic dried fruit as well as about a dozen kinds of candy," I told one dad, as I handed him a beer.

He said, "Most of the year, I'd steer him away from the sugar, but as I look at this table, I can see there's no way I could realistically expect my son to not eat candy today. I'm going to just let him enjoy himself."

I noticed the boy ate one candy cane and a few gumdrops.

We partied from about 1:30 in the afternoon until past dinnertime. I brought out the turkey carcass and people made turkey sandwiches. George rendered the remains into soup. It was very tasty.