Weekend Round-Up: 3 days, 3 parties

This was the official party weekend for Rob and I! Now it is really starting to feel like the holidays! On Friday night, we had Stacey, Ben and Matt over for a small dinner party. The food all came out well (aside from the pork being a bit dry), the conversation was lively and I think everyone had a grand time. Here’s a photo of the aftermath:

Saturday morning I grudgingly woke up and drove to SOMA to have my hair done for the office party later that night. Nikki did a great job of straightening it again! After a quick lunch with Rob, I took the most delicious hour long nap on the sofa. What a luxury! Feeling fully restored, we bundled up in puffy jackets and drove out to the archery field to meet Matt for some extreme, cold-weather, shooting. I did pretty well closer to the target but lost my mojo when we were back 30 yards. When our fingers finally froze up, Rob and I headed home to get ready for the party.

We met Jill on the subway downtown at 6:45. It seemed like every single person in the city was out for a holiday party and cabs were accordingly hard to find! The party’s huge raw bar loaded with oysters, ahi and jumbo shrimp made up for the tricky commute and the rest of the menu was equally delish. We luckily managed to find another cab home pretty quickly when the party wound down at 1 am.

I tried to sleep in a bit on Sunday but our neighborhood gets an early start on the weekends. Between the drills at Firestation No. 6 (“pride of the Castro!”) and the church bells, I didn’t have much luck. Instead, I made a pot of tea and baked a batch of sugar cookies for the open house later in the day. After the house was scrubbed and the dishes washed, Rob and I had a lunch of brie and avocado sandwiches, decorated the cookies and watched a video. Rob is a master cookie decorator! Finally, it was four and time for the open house.

I was so nervous that no one would come that the final meager turn out of two was a delight. Both neighbors who came by (now known as “the first people I’ll notify should the building catch on fire”) were friendly and chatty. Rob and I learned a lot about the other neighbors, the people who lived in our apartment before and the history of the building. We also got two really nice notes from people who couldn’t make it. One said that this was the first time in the 17 years he lived here that someone hosted a party for the tenants and that “such good neighbors are hard to come by!” So overall, it wasn’t a huge success. I am still really glad I tried and will work harder at getting people to come next year.

We had originally planned to go to the movies after the open house. Instead, we made a dinner of unfinished veggie/cheese platters and champagne while watching Charlie Brown Christmas specials on TV. What a perfect party-for-two to end this fun weekend!