The favorite things party was this weekend. I enjoyed it immensely, but it was not at all like I expected it to be. In my head we would all be very excited about the gifts and the focus of the party would be such.

People arrived and mingled well. We drank Shirley Temples, ate Texas trash, artichoke dip, crab dip, and nacho cheese. It was really interesting to watch people that I know from different circumstances interact with one another, and certainly great fun having other neighbors to help illustrate my bad neighbor stories! We played some games and laughed LOTS and before we knew it hours had gone by. Then it was all, "we have to stop having fun to go open the gifts". Not that the gifts weren't fun, but like I said, I expected that they would be the focus of the evening, and honestly the evening would have been just as great without them.

People brought the following:
Bath and Body Works lotion
note cards
socks
note paper
houseplants
magic erasers
felted soap
ornaments
lotion
makeup
gum
Lindt chocolate

It's neat, not only to have a bunch of nice things, but to see what other people had as favorite items. One guest didn't show and we had an extra bag of goodies. I wondered what I should do with everything before remembering about a friend who's co worker is going through her own personal hell and could use a pick me up, so we sent the stuff to her.

Then Gary came down to say goodnight and people realized that FIVE HOURS had gone by so we had to say goodnight as well.

It really was a lot of fun, and I would love to be able to do it again. Maybe for four hours and without the gifts next time.