The girls have been talking about the holidays of their youth - their dreaded (but loved!) Christmas piano recitals, favorite neighborhood parties, childhood traditions. Quite a bit of Christmas has changed as we have too. Our holiday is less and less about presents and more about being together in the kitchen and at the table. There are enough of us now that it's a party just assembling for a meal. But we miss some of that old. The Christmas dresses, the all-out decorating, the recital piece, the celebrations, the only-handmade gifting.

So we were very excited to be invited to a holiday party yesterday. All dressed up, we headed over the river and through the woods with Mo's holiday song mix inspiring a sweet trivia ramble of our Christmases past.

The house twinkled through the trees, decorated top to bottom, inside and out. Merriment and joy. Everyone was so happy.

In lieu of hostess gifts, the invitation suggested donations for the food pantry. Dozens and dozens of shopping bags filled the entry. (edited to add that they collected 312 lbs of food!)

Babies passed from arm to arm. Little ones darted through the room with chocolate Santas. There were holiday neckties and glittering Christmas pins. Cannoli, Mercy's famous rum cake and Toni's home-baked cookies.