Yesterday (Sunday) was the day of the Meeting Mid-Winter Party and then in the late afternoon and evening we had our party here.

The Meeting party was great. There was a really good bring and share lunch to start with, then Helen Cadbury had organised a children's play. John was a milkman (married to Lily), who took in a down and out man over Christmas. Rose was a Quaker carol singer and "girl number 2." Toby played the hand bells and did sound effects (quite reluctantly!) After the play Toby and Luke went into town, while Rose, John and I enjoyed the ceilidh. They were both very enthusiastic dancers and the Meeting room got much hotter and sweatier than normal!

We came home at about 4 and got ready for our party. By half five, there were loads of people here, and there were until half nine. Just about everyone I had asked or vaguely mentioned it to had come. There was the usual problem of drinks being in the kitchen, so everyone had to process through two full rooms to get to them! An excellent party that has left me feeling very good about things. As usual I hardly had time to chat to some people, but it was great seeing so many people here. It seemed like there were hundreds of children running around. Rose had some party games in her room, John lots of his friends in his and Toby had several big boys playing on the xbox in his room. At 9:30 there were only 3 people left, who helped me sort out the kitchen for the morning.

Today Billy came back to help finish off the tidying, which was great and made it much more interesting than it would otherwise have been. The house is now almost tidier and cleaner than it was before! We don't seem to have broken a single glass!