We decided to use our new addition this weekend.  It turned out, REALLY use our new addition this weekend.  In past years, we’ve hosted a gingerbread party, where the kids decorate gingerbread cookies.  The kids get to invite their friends, we have a bunch of fun with them, and we’re happy to have a mess made in our house.  We clean up the house beforehand, so it sort of all nets out to where it was before we had a horde of kids.

This year, we upped the ante.  We did crafts with a ton of kids.  We’re so crazy, we gave the kids glitter.  We imported two teenagers to help, we fed ’em stuff we picked up at BJ’s, and just generally let them play when they got bored of crafts.  I’m a big fan of just letting kids play when they’re done with whatever stuff’s at hand.  Note that we’d have been in a world of hurt had we had a fire, as I’m not sure exactly how many kids we had.  I know it was more than 15, probably less than 25.  But we were just having a great time with these kids.   And the kids went home with crafts that they had made, and ran around playing with my kids, with other kids.  It was a blast!

And then we had the teenagers from church over.  Teenagers, it turns out, bring lots of teenagers.  And they take up a lot more space than do first graders.  We had more than 30  (!!!!) teenagers in our home.  We munched on food with them, did a white elephant gift exchange, went caroling around the neighborhood…  my kids, my husband, and I had a WONDERFUL time hanging out with these high schoolers.   I had talked my husband into letting us host the high school youth group, figuring we were already set up for a party, teenager parties are low key, and heck, what’s a new addition for if not for making it available for gatherings like this.  As teenagers kept pouring in, I really started to wonder if I had done the right thing.  Folks were stepping over and around each other.  All I can say is, I’ll do it again next year if they’ll let me.  One daughter picked one teenager to hang out with.  The other daughter picked another teenager.  All three kids were delighted to get to go caroling with the big kids.  And it’s a wonderful juxtoposition to see these kids, some of whom I’ve seen grow up in the church, in the same house as my kids.

So weekend’s over, tomorrow’s a back to work day.  But I really enjoyed our tremendously busy weekend, and all of the folks who flowed into and out of our house.  If you were one of them, thank you for coming!  We really enjoyed having you!