A grand success

Last night's party was a grand affair! It is always so wonderful to have your favorite friends and family together, surrounded by a pervasive aura of love and happiness, music, great food and drink, uproarious laughter and endless talk which refuse to let silence enter. El and her wonderful husband created a fantastic slideshow of photographs of Mom and Dad from the past 40+ years as well as a number of loving notes fam and friends had sent in. In an old moving box I recently managed to unpack, I found three dinner plates from the china Mom and Dad received as wedding gifts. Last night, they ate from those. I'd had a local florist recreate a less-detailed version of Mom's wedding bouquet which she carried around sportingly for a while. Dad wore a boutonniere, champagne and wine flowed, and never before have I seen such a spread of food be decimated so quickly. Hear, hear!! Leftovers of any degree there were not.

We plowed through seven pounds of beef tenderloin, a vat of mint-pistachio pesto, two dozen rolls, the beet-horseradish salad, an asparagus-mint salad, a strawberry cheesecake, a lemon meringue pie and a chocolate-almond cake. Not a crumb remained. Easiest clean-up ever!

The past 24

My parents arrived, we picked the boys up, went to Jack's baseball game (a sad loss), came home and got the boys in bed by 8, drank wine because we were pooped, went to bed after amusing ourselves with a few of Bill Hader's best SNL skits. He is a trip -Stefon is my favorite- and I'm so sorry he's leaving the show. This morning, we hung low with the boys, all of us tired and eager to laze, by watching an enormous number of Loony Tunes cartoons. They really are so funny. I made some strawberry-thyme sauce to top a cheesecake for Monday's party, took a proper shower and actually styled my hair as the kids are now with Tom's parents, my parents are picking up my sister and her husband at Dulles, and then we will all drive to Annapolis for a rehearsal dinner.

Do you know when friends become good friends and then the lines blur beyond besties until you've got what is, for all intents and purposes, family? Well, we are so lucky to have such a family in our lives: the Hills. I've written about them before: Jim and Marjorie are my second parents; their daughter, Emily, and my sister have been best friends since the age of 4; Emily's husband, Shafik, is fantastic, as are my T and Elia's Michele; Chris, the Hills' son, is like a brother. And he is marrying a wonderful woman tomorrow; we are all thrilled to welcome Lauren into our ever-growing "family." So this is a special weekend in many ways, and I am grateful for all this time together.

Jack has a final game tomorrow morning, the wedding is at 4, and then we rest briefly before Mom and Dad's anniversary party (40 years!) on Monday.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

My parents! In fact, I am leaving for the airport in five minutes. We are all so excited! And my sister and her husband arrive tomorrow. Yippee! I have worked like a madwoman today, preparing and cleaning. It's not like my parents care, but I do. You know? Sitting down for a brief lunch of this lovely caprese salad and some bread from last night. Over and out, friends!