We ventured out in the rain to visit and break bread with some of Aunt Monte’s friends. We had a lovely meal of Prime Rib, Truffle/Mac Casserole, and Squash. All of it delicious! Of course the bottles of wine helped everything go down smoothly—especially the various topics that came up in conversation. I am polite, and apparently children read this blog occasionally so I won’t get into the topics here. Let’s just say they ran the gamut from: “Is there a Santa Clause”; to “which religion treats women less awful”; to “the various ways we were taught about the birds and the bees”. I am not really ready to think about how I will cross those bridges with Oliver when the time comes, but it was fun to hear the ways other people’s parents screwed that up.

Oliver and I were a bit late as he decided to take a pre-party nap in the car on the way over. He probably would have kept sleeping through the entire party if I hadn’t finally gotten him up. Seriously, he was snoring in his little blue parka and didn’t feel the cold when I rolled the windows down. Nor did he hear the police sirens as they passed by on neighboring streets. After and hour and a half, there was a break in the rain, and I had to pee (and craved some wine) so I basically just yanked him up and out of his car seat.

Once at the party Oliver played and played. He also ate more than just about anyone at the table—I think he was probably a close second or third to Matt and myself. Once Oliver finished clearing his Papi’s plate he crawled into Aunt Monte’s lap and proceeded to clean her plate as well. He especially loved Aunt Tim’s casserole. Once Monte’s plate was clean, Papi and I kept tossing bits of macaroni onto her plate just so O could gobble it up.

We discussed it in the car and the three of us came to the conclusion that Aunt Monte needs to have more dinner parties because that was a wonderful way to ring in the New Year. In fact, we could not think of a better way than with new friends! Thanks to everyone. We truly enjoyed meeting everyone and we had a blast.

PS. We need to get Aunt Tim’s Truffle Mac & Cheese Casserole recipe!