Tree trimming/birthday party

Yesterday Spouse & I hosted our tree trimming/birthday party.  It was a lot of fun!

We had set up and lit the tree in advance, and had all the boxes of ornaments out and ready.  20 of our friends came over about 4pm and some of us began hanging the ornaments.  (Several just came for the food and social aspect.)  About an hour later the tree was done and it looked beautiful.

We used to trim the tree ourselves until just a few years ago.  With all those ornaments it took a long time with just the 2 of us, especially since Spouse would always lose interest after 15 minutes, leaving me to finish the tree.  After the 1st time we had a tree trimming party I realized that in addition to the tree getting decorated quicker, it also looks different each year.  With other people hanging the ornaments in different places, different ornaments are 'highlighted' each year due to their location.  I love it!

Once the tree was done we ate dinner.  Spouse made ziti with Italian sausage and homemade meatballs, salad, and garlic bread.  Along with it we had wine, soda, tea, and Prosecco with St Germain.  We served this at our wedding reception and it was a big hit again last night.  I have a feeling this will become our signature celebration drink.  Since my birthday was on Fri, we celebrated it on Sun along with the tree trimming. 

After dinner our friend Tim brought a homemade version of Jeopardy, with categories like "Honey Boo Boo" and "Holiday Movies".  At 1st I thought it was going to be lame, but it was actually quite fun.  Tim did a terrific job writing the questions/answers and creating the Jeopardy board.

Afterward we had birthday cake and cupcakes.

It was a great party and everyone had fun!

Weekend highlights

On Fri early afternoon Ron & James and Mike & Clark (hereto described as 'the guys' in this post) arrived in town and took advantage of our lovely tax-free outlet and factory store shopping.  This is a ritual for them, and works well with our schedules since Spouse & I usually work til about 5.  The house cleaners were not finished at 5 so I called Spouse and told him to meet me and the guys at Fish On! for happy hour.  We had cocktails and shared a couple appetizers and chatted for a while.  Once we were pretty sure the house cleaners were gone we continued talking at home.  That night the guys selected Rigby's as their choice for dinner.  We'd eaten there a year or so ago and they liked it.  Plus, its location offers free parking which is hard to come by in the middle of summer in a beach resort town.  We had a great dinner and decided to have a boardwalk ice cream and people-watch for a few minutes.  Upon returning home we continued to catch up on the goings on in each others' lives.  Although they only come to visit once a year and we only see them 2-3 times a year, we always seem to just pick right up where we left off which is the sign of good friends.

I planned not to work on Sat & Sun so I was there with everyone Sat morning for coffee and continued conversation.  Later breakfast Spouse made breakfast for everyone.  Although I was off, I did agree to meet clients for 30 minutes nearby to look at a building lot.  While I did that the guys slipped out for a little more shopping.  3 of them came home with new digital cameras!  The latter part of the afternoon found some napping, some computing, and others just relaxing.  That evening we enjoyed and old cocktail favorite:  Champagne Darlings.  So easy to make, so delicious, and so refreshing in the summertime.  Then we headed off for dinner at Ivy.  It took some convincing beforehand to get them to agree to the 'small bite' dinner concept but once they tasted the food and saw the sunset on the bay view, they understood why we'd recommended it.  After dinner we headed into town for the Legends show.  I performed as Elton John and it was fun to see my friends there in the front row.

Sun after coffee and conversation we had breakfast at Ocean Point Grill.  The guys had packed their car beforehand and left directly from the restaurant.  Spouse & I hung out at home for a while, then met up with Steven and Dennis & Rasaahn for dinner.  

We had a great weekend with our friends!