Monday, December 13, 2010

So I Was In My Pajamas...

My Christmas Decorations This Year
Every year, I like to have a little Christmas gathering at my place for some relaxing music, hot tea, yummy treats, and good conversation. This year I decided to invite my two wonderful critique partners. I sent out the invitation and suggested we meet at my place for this month's critique and have a nice Victorian-themed tea party. The only difference was that we would meet in the afternoon instead of the morning. My two friends thought it was a wonderful idea.

I was quite excited. I have some beautiful china that my mother gave to me and I couldn't wait to use it. I went and picked up some treats (all the sugar cookies we made last weekend were gone!) and went to bed Friday night mentally preparing what I had to do in the morning.

I woke up earlier than usual on Saturday. Outside, it was bitterly cold with snow falling and the wind blowing. But I knew my comfy, warm abode would be the perfect respite. Besides, we would be talking about writing and eating scrumptious food at the same time. What could be better?

Around 10 a.m., I was still in my pajamas and my husband had just finished cleaning (he even mopped the kitchen floor!). My phone rang. The ID said, "Building." (Our apartment's intercom system is linked to our cell phone). I answered it and two chirpy voices said, "We're here!" To which I responded, "Who is we?", thinking someone had buzzed the wrong apartment.

But no. It was my two critique partners. They had forgotten that we changed the time to 2 p.m. and were instead meeting at our regular time - 10 a.m.

All my intentions of preparing my home - candles lit, music playing, tasteful spread of tea and goodies on the table - went down the drain. Instead, I rushed to throw on some clothes, pulled my hair in a ponytail, put some water in my kettle to boil, and tore open my cookie packages and threw cookies on some plates.

But you know what? It was completely ok. We had a wonderful time. We laughed and joked, had a great critique session, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.

"Now you have material for a new blog post!" they told me when they left.

Yep. And we also made a great memory!

12 comments:

  1. Sounds lovely and you have a beautifully decorated fireplace and tree! (And you enjoyed the moment, even though it came 4 hours early!) :)

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  2. Hi Melissa!
    Don't you just love it when events in every day life do become blog posts! I worry sometimes that I will run out of ideas, but something always happens to inspire me!

    It sounds like you three had a lovely time-even though you got caught in your P.J.'s!! Even though you didn't get to prepare like you had planned, you also didn't have a chance to worry over little details throughout the day. I've done that to the point that I'm mentally exhausted by the time my guests arrive. Better to just enjoy the companionship of friends like you did.

    And for the record-the sugar cookies would have been gone in our house too! (Sugar should have been my middle name.)

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  3. Wendy - Thanks! That's the one thing I just adore about my apartment - the fireplace. Makes it so warm and cozy around Christmas.

    Valerie - Y'know, I think it worked better this way. I usually do a lot of hovering and too much thinking before guests arrive, leaving me on pins and needles. This way I didn't have time to get all worked up! (And my middle name should be "sugar", too!)

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  4. Love it when everyday life inspires blog posts! Sounds like you had a great time, and your home is decorated beautifully. I have a string of those same gold beads on my tree too. The only problem is that our cat likes to rearrange them the way she likes. There have been times when we've walked into the room and found the beads laid straight out across the floor :)

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  5. LOL, Joanne! Thankfully my kitty has no interest in the tree. She'll lay under it, but that's about it. :-)

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  6. Best laid plans often go astray, but like you said, now you have a story to tell.

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  7. The lady who hosts our crit meeting has already emailed to tell me she is baking for tonight's meeting. I'm really looking forward to it.

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  8. Patti - It all worked out in the end. :-)

    Enjoy tonight's meeting, Travis!

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  9. How funny! Isn't that just the way life works? I swear that happens to me all the time!!!

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  10. T. Anne - I've had unexpected company before, but this was TOTALLY unexpected!

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  11. Melissa, this is too funny. I get worked up whenever I have company, too, so having to just roll with it actually sounds pretty good. The fact that it all worked out is testimony that the key ingredients were in place...a lovely hostess and good company!

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  12. Aww, thanks, Christine!

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