House-Cooling Party??

When you acquire something new, it's reason for a party, right? Thus, a housewarming party??? But what if you are in the midst of giving something up? I will come back to this thought in a bit.....

David's best friend, Jon, is in Buffalo from New Orleans. Actually, Jon is more than a friend, he is family to us. He is like a brother to us and Jon's family, in turn, has accepted us as part of their "extended family". Since David's mom lives 500 miles away, we would joke around that Jon's mom (Shirley) is David's "Buffalo Mom" and consequently, after Madeline came home, while Jon is "Uncle Jon", Shirley became, "Buffalo Grandma". Madeline knows Jon and Shirley....but add to the mix, Jon's brother, Joe, who is also in town from Dallas. This evening we had "Buffalo Grandma", "Uncle Jon" and Joe over for dinner. It was actually pretty funny because Madeline, not as familiar with Joe, started off calling him "Mr. Joe", then "Uncle Joe" then "Uncle Mr. Joe". However as the evening progressed and the temperature outside began to drop Madeline asked Joe, "Do you want a sweatshirt, HONEY?"......oh brother!!

The six of us had a nice evening. David cooked out some yummy chicken on the grill, I made a couple sides (that was fun trying to have a functional kitchen with half of my stuff packed away), Shirley brought a pasta salad and fruit salad (which Madeline devoured half of) and then I served strawberry shortcake for dessert. The "boys" have such a quick sense of humor and we had many good laughs throughout the night. When the evening ended and our company left, David and I reflected about the enjoyable evening while looking forward to the almost immediate future in our new house. We began to realize that tonight is probably the last time we would entertain in our current home. We realized that (due to upcoming travel) this may have been the last Sunday meal in our current house.

So, prior to our new house's "warming", in retrospect I guess we can say that tonight was our "House Cooling Party". How appropriate to create some final memories in our home with friends that we consider family. Thanks for sharing the evening with us!!