Bear-Bear's Party

Today


We had our annual drinks party at the flat yesterday. This is probably the last time we'll do this so there was a bit of nostalgia hanging around. My gorgeous, very tall nephew Jacob was there with his two little ones. Max slept right through, but four-year old Evie (together with her constant companion, Bear-Bear, was the life and soul to the bitter end. Although there were no other children at the party, there were enough familiar faces to keep her comfortable and I believe she had a really good time. We sent her home with a box of crackers (with strict instructions to save them until Xmas day) and a paper-chain making kit.


In My Day


When we were first married we could never see why the fact that we had children should conflict with our desire to go to parties. In the early days it was simply a question of popping the babies into a bed where, like Max, they slept the occasion away. Very soon, we developed a sort of compromise. The girls would be allowed up for a while and indulged with crisps and lemonade. At a given signal, they would then go to bed, usually in our host's spare room. The girls understood very soon that the first indulgence would be taken away if they didn't comply with the second part.


And I think they really rather enjoyed is. While they were still awake enough to make the most of it, they were feted and fussed over by any number of grown ups. Then when bedtime came and they were really anyway getting too tired to have fun, they could snuggle up together and giggle till they fell asleep. Only the being woken at two am on what were sometimes cold nights was less appealing.


And there were unexpected bonuses. On one occasion, it was the day before Lizzie's ninth birthday. As midnight approached and we were sitting beside our host's inglenook fireplace, Lizzie was woken, as she thought, as usual. But this time she was ushered into the living room and saw her birthday in by toasting marsmallows over the fire and being given a gift of a very nice purple and grey striped dress which I believe she wore until it dropped to pieces.

I have never been much of a believer in maintaining a strict division between children's and adult's social occasions and last night Evie conducted herself with charm and decorum. Merry Christmas, Evie!