Party Party

Tom and I were married in Union City, California in 1982. In 1983, we decided to have a holiday party in December. We asked guests to bring ornaments for an exchange and a tradition was born and we've held the party every year, with two exceptions—when Tom was sick (so we rescheduled for Valentine's Day) and 2004, the year before we moved to Oregon.

Tom's eggnog recipe has become renowned and he's prided himself on converting more than a few people to the ways of Brussels sprouts (I, however, am not one of those converts.) Tom loves to cook (good thing, too, since [lucky me!] he does most of the day-to-day cooking), but baking is not his forté, so I'm in charge of desserts and breads, as well as the ham (aka Daddy Ham because the recipe came from my father) and miscellaneous appetizers, salads, and whatever new recipe we decide to try out on our guests.

But it's more than the food and the ornaments—it's about getting together with friends we enjoy. In California, it was mostly people with whom we worked at Atari, Apple and Adobe, and the smaller companies of DK Marketing and ViMart (both long since closed.) Somehow life seemed to get in the way and if we didn't work with them, we rarely saw them during the year, but we were lucky that they made time to come to our house during the holidays.

As I write this I have gone back to look at some party pictures from the past. We are still in touch with a lot of the people, but sometimes wonder what has become of others.

2006
Last Saturday was our 22nd Holiday Party, Ornament Exchange and Eggnog Bash.

Joe and Renée Limon are friends from California who experienced Tom's eggnog and Brussels sprouts in San Jose, as well as here in Oregon.

Dianne Rodway and John Becker liked the eggnog so much they served it at their Open House last year with such success, it looks like it will make a repeat appearance each year. Jean Rodway, Dianne's mom, will get a second dose of eggnog for the season, too.

Remarkably Mark Shelton has made it to several parties, though we haven't lived in the same area since we were at Colorado State University (more than a few years ago). He lives in Seattle and drove down for the party.

It was great to see Russ and Jean Pearce, Jim and Dianne Sather, Warren and Sharon Howard, and Mike and Liz Hashem at our house, all of whom we met on the Mexico Cruise

It was also nice to spend time getting to know Karen and Bill, neighbors from across the street.

On the whole, I'm not great about taking pictures, as evidenced by the fact that we have no pictures from the 2005 holiday party. However, I did manage to remember to pull out the camera on Saturday, though briefly, and took a few pictures.

Where are the pictures? They're here.