New Years Progressive Dinner Party

New Years Progressive Dinner Party

"What Happens in the Neighborhood Stays in the Neighborhood" There is No Place Like Home:

My husband and I are attending our annual neighborhood holiday progressive dinner party this evening. Last year, as in the previous years, we begin at a willing home owners to imbibe and start with appetizers. When signaled, the mass of people, usually loud at this point, proceed to dinner at a new house. Things quiet down now as people find a respectable place to sit and visit with their neighbor to the immediate right or left of them. Our past dinner hosts have furnished grace before the meal which sets the stage for a quieter more somber, yet thankful atmosphere. All in all it is an unusual change of settings going from the rock'n appetizer house with loud festive revelers into the somber giving thanks to the almighty house. Finally, with already having our fill, guests are signaled one last time to go to the dessert house. Everything is up to the unknown at the dessert house. The first time I participated in this, I thought maybe it might end up with anyone's call for settings, so perhaps a hot tub or a dance party until the wee hours of the morning I thought. Technically though, with all the logistics in place prior to this evening, it sounds like the event would go off without a hitch, but there are stragglers, and people who also jump the start gate to the next house before the signal, perhaps more comfortable in one setting versus the other or just flat out hungry. So where does Scott and Lisa fit into all this neighborly merry making? Are we more comfortable in one setting versus the other? Well, tonight we'll find out and I was warned the first year we moved in "What happens in the neighborhood, stays in the neighborhood" and truthfully to Scott and me, as much as it is good to be social and get to know your neighbors and friends better, we realize there is no place like home.