We held a party at our house last Saturday. It was a gathering of families, getting together to share some holiday cheer. I counted, and in total there were 19 adults, and 16 children aged 6 and younger. It was a lot of people in our 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath suburban castle, but it was fun. The kids were actually surprisingly quiet, and no lasting injuries occurred. I would call it a resounding success, really.

Here are some scenes from the evening.

Hannah in her party dress, doing some decorating

Folding chairs, all ready to go

Decimated buffet

Empty glasses

One young partygoer takes a reading break

Coats, shoes, hats and bags

Little people playing at their parents’ feet

Jacob drinks some water from a very fancy glass

Playing in the empty tub

Sliding down the stairway

The best part of the evening? Everyone had said their good-byes by 9pm. We all had tired little ones to think of, after all. I’ll admit, I think that I prefer these earlier evenings to the the much later nights of my youth. Plus, there was none of the stress of dealing with the whole meat market scene. We all knew who we were going home with, because their car seats were in our cars.

What about you? Do you have any family parties on the calendar this holiday season, or do you prefer to stay home and have a cozy celebration to yourselves? Or would you rather ditch the kids and have a fancy night on the town? I’ll admit, I sort of relish the idea of going to parties that require nice shoes again.

PS – I have advanced to the second round of the Canadian Blog Awards! From now until December 19 you can vote every day. Look for Strocel.com in the Family and Blog Post Series categories.