Holiday party after all

[eve_prime]

I did still have that headache today, but I did go to the holiday party. At first it was too loud, and we couldn't find a quiet place to sit, but then we got our own table near the entrance, and EW's family joined us - her kids were quiet and calm, and once the shrieky kids at some of the other nearby tables got food it wasn't too bad. I felt well enough to stay for two hours, which was longer than many other people were there. We ate some nice food (my favorites were the stuffed shells), and J had a nice cider, and we had lots of conversations. We were sitting near the photo booth with its costume materials, so it was fun to watch people putting on wigs and such and posing. Also, there was a very cute little girl who kept serving "smoothies" to everyone at the tables in our area - she'd walk up with a tray of plastic cups, each with some plastic food she'd put in them (the venue had a good play area with toys like that). I had a lemon smoothie (a cup with a plastic lemon in it), and several people had broccoli smoothies. Eli, sitting at the table behind me, got a donut smoothie. People I talked with besides EW and her family: Herb, Bonnie, Shawn, Ramona (who had lost two 200-year-old oaks in the storm), Ed and his wife Jocelyn, Tom J (who has been working on a project with D but hasn't met him yet, though he'd seen him as a small child), Cathy, Branden, Dana, Lindsey, Eli... that's probably about it. J sampled at least six desserts in the dessert contest, and I had small bites of several - the lemon bars were the best in my opinion, though others liked a chocolate tart with a fancy topping. Afterwards, though, it was quite refreshing to emerge into the quiet rainy night. We were at the city golf course, which is a pretty neighborhood south of the university.