Don't give me no mess
Have you ever wondered what would happen when your wife hosts a happy hour for the other moms (and their kids) on our block? Well, tonight when I got home from work I found out:
They've actually been doing this monthly for quite a while now, taking turns at different folks' houses; it's great that we have a bunch of other young families on our block who we get along with really well. But I don't think I was quite prepared to come home and find that between toys, books, and dropped snacks, you really couldn't see the floor in either our family room or living room (and I'm not exactly a stickler for neatness). The truly amazing thing is that at some point when everyone was getting ready to go, some of the moms quietly and anonymously cleaned all of the toys off the floors (and Grady handled the snacks).
That was especially helpful because Gretchen only has use of one hand. I was feeding Mädchen when Gretchen told me she cut herself and needed to go upstairs...and was followed by one of our neighbors, who happens to be a nurse. When they finally came back downstairs, Gretchen was sporting his lovely number on her ring finger:
Her lesson learned? Always invite a nurse to your happy hours. So far, knock on wood, we haven't had to go to the emergency room...so we're keeping our (bandaged) fingers crossed that all is well in the morning.
ADDENDUM:
Whenever she has gone to these things at the other neighbors' houses, Gretchen has been in awe of the fancy drinks they would serve, so she was quite anxious about what she would be able to come up with, especially since we tend to drink wine and not much else. Finally she settled on an old classic, and one of our favorite aperitifs when we lived in Europe: kir and kir royale. The only problem was finding good creme de cassis...she got some at a liquor store, but when buying wine the clerk suggested using Chambord instead because the cassis you get here is nothing like what you get in France (duh!). Neither of us remember ever having Chambord, but when we saw the names of the drinks it's used in, and the ever-so-classy bottle it comes in--well, somehow that crappy creme de cassis didn't seem so bad after all...
They've actually been doing this monthly for quite a while now, taking turns at different folks' houses; it's great that we have a bunch of other young families on our block who we get along with really well. But I don't think I was quite prepared to come home and find that between toys, books, and dropped snacks, you really couldn't see the floor in either our family room or living room (and I'm not exactly a stickler for neatness). The truly amazing thing is that at some point when everyone was getting ready to go, some of the moms quietly and anonymously cleaned all of the toys off the floors (and Grady handled the snacks).
That was especially helpful because Gretchen only has use of one hand. I was feeding Mädchen when Gretchen told me she cut herself and needed to go upstairs...and was followed by one of our neighbors, who happens to be a nurse. When they finally came back downstairs, Gretchen was sporting his lovely number on her ring finger:
Her lesson learned? Always invite a nurse to your happy hours. So far, knock on wood, we haven't had to go to the emergency room...so we're keeping our (bandaged) fingers crossed that all is well in the morning.
ADDENDUM:
Whenever she has gone to these things at the other neighbors' houses, Gretchen has been in awe of the fancy drinks they would serve, so she was quite anxious about what she would be able to come up with, especially since we tend to drink wine and not much else. Finally she settled on an old classic, and one of our favorite aperitifs when we lived in Europe: kir and kir royale. The only problem was finding good creme de cassis...she got some at a liquor store, but when buying wine the clerk suggested using Chambord instead because the cassis you get here is nothing like what you get in France (duh!). Neither of us remember ever having Chambord, but when we saw the names of the drinks it's used in, and the ever-so-classy bottle it comes in--well, somehow that crappy creme de cassis didn't seem so bad after all...
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