So, James got home early both days this week. You'd figure he'd be home even earlier New Year's Eve, right?

Nope. He worked all day, which is good for our pocketbooks, but I'm sure he could have used a nap before the party.

Me, I walked the dog, scrubbed the master bath, made the bed, tidied up more, finished re-reading The House Without a Christmas Tree, and finally settled down to listen to Christmas music and read The Cottage Holiday. I also had the BBC's production of Master and Commander on in the background. About three I started watching The Nine Tailors, because the mystery proper starts on New Year's Eve when the church in the village of Fenchurch St. Paul is going for a marathon bell ring. (British Anglican churches do a complex mathematical thing called "change ringing"; I don't understand it, but I do remember the names of all the bells in the ring in this story: John, Jericho, Jubilee, Gaude, Dimity, Saboath, Batty Thomas, and Tailor Paul.)

I ran out to Kroger at one point; we were going to bring chips and dip to Bill's party, but they said they already had that. I got some cheese and some summer sausage instead, and sliced it up, and bought some crackers to go with the cheese ball we bought at the Chicken Salad Chick. I bought some potato soup as well, since we wouldn't eat until after nine; when James came home, I warmed it up with extra bacon bits and chives in it, and a little butter, and to James I added about a handful of chopped-up summer sausage I held back.

We left about eight fifteen, which should have put us at Bill and Caran's house at nine, but there was a whopper of a car accident on I-285 eastbound—five lanes blocked! We left the detour to the GPS, and we still can't figure out why it didn't take us all the way through on Chamblee-Tucker Road, since we crossed it at least three times. We were so close to work I could have spit and hit it. Eventually we ended up on the route we usually take home, through LaVista and Brockett. (Everyone else had to do the same thing. Several people were delayed by the traffic jam.)

Nice party, not as much of a crowd as other years, but still fun. Sat around and talked to Alice and Ken and whomever wandered into the hardback library (the paperback library is in a different room). Stepped into the dining room occasionally to get a bit of this and that. Alice brought a barbecue chicken and yellow rice that she cooked in her new pressure cooker which was delicious. The cheese and summer sausage disappeared. Alex's little pastries were great; I had the pumpkin creme brulee ones. Yum! Had a chicken wing, some chips, most of the Special Dark miniatures in the bowl, two of Lin's piecrust rolls, and lots of Alice's dish. Tried the sangria, but it needed more fruit juice; it still tasted too much like wine. :-)

And finally...tick...tick...tick...tick...it's time for the Happy New Year, Snowy. A chorus of "Happy New Year," the clink of glasses, and 2014 is history.

Bye, Willow. We miss you...

Labels: food, friends, parties, pets, television

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