A Housewarming

The day that Peter and I closed on the house, we ordered Chinese Food, hopped up on the counters of our new kitchen, popped some champagne, and surveyed our pride and joy over egg rolls and sweet and sour soup. At the end of the meal we cracked a couple fortune cookies, hoping for a good omen as we started the next Chapter of our life. Peter's was forgettable. At least I forgot it. But mine revealed a very telling phrase.
'You are the center of every group attention.'
Aw, perfect. Totally meant to be. Fitting.

However, about a week ago, I learned that my freebie fortune might have had another meaning.  One of our neighbors had offered us a couple of their hostas by way of a note in our mailbox - their take on a basket full of muffins, I suppose. I was deeply entrenched in the war of the weeds, so Peter went over to say, 'hi' and snab the perennials. Along with the plants, Peter came back with a little neighborhood history.

According to the hosta dealers, our house used to be the 'epicenter of madness.' Our yard was where all the kids on the block would congregate - where all the dogs would come to play - where all the screaming children would hit their highest, loudest, most deafening notes. Kid chaos - 'the center of every group attention.' That's the reason I see kids walk past our house, longingly looking into the back yard, wondering when the circus will come to town again.

Instead of putting up a sign that the Big Top was closed, Peter and I hosted a housewarming party to set the tone for a new era of the backyard. It was an attempt to redirect my fortune to our favor and to gain some group attention with something other than outside voices that should only be used if stranger danger is imminent. 

The combination of a retro themed bar complete with punch, craft brews on tap, a 10-hour smoked ham with accompanying mustard bar, summer sides, dozens of chocolate chip cookies and snicker doodles, a hammock, and good people hanging out on the lawn, took our home from cozy to completely warm. In fact, by the time Keith, Kate and Brian were howling in the basement while watching Duck Dynasty, the house had turned pretty darn hot.

Friends, thank you for helping to warm our House. And now that a certain, more subtle tone is set, I'm thinking perhaps we should offer to host the block party.

Lo.