Despite having sent out e-mail notification of the party cancellation 24 hours ahead of time, and having gotten back a number of confirmations — we still had a pool going as to how many guests were going to show up. To that end, Margie and Jim and Ginger did a quick cleaning job on the living/dining room (so that if someone came to the door and saw how things looked, they’d see a cheerful holiday house).
Jackie came over to socialize, and after cocktails, we adjourned into the kitchen to eat some yummy pork that Margie had been slow cooking, along with rolls (for the party) and other goodies.
As we were doing so, at about 7:30p, the appointed time … the doorbell rang. I was dressed (sort of) acceptably, but Margie was in her ratty house duds, and she fled upstairs to let me answer the door …
… which turned out to be Jim, having fun on us.
Ha.
So when the doorbell rang again at about 8, every eye went to Jim. In this case case, it was the Wolfes, who realized that the party must have been cancelled — but who we cajoled to come in to eat and drink something anyway. And at about 8:30, another couple showed up, the Korsmitts, so we invited them in, too. Not sure why the Wolfes didn’t get word (as they check stuff diligently); Kees has an excuse because he’d sold his company and his e-mail changed the day before I sent out my note (and,
honestly, given the degree of false spam bounces I’ve been getting, who can check everything)?
Folks hung out for about another hour, then vamoosed. All in all, a nice, small, manageable, pleasant get-together. I’m glad it worked out as it did.
And we had a number of folks hoping that we were rescheduling, not cancelling — so now we’re talking about doing a “Christmas in July” get-together.
Aaand … it did snow another couple of inches last night. Hope everyone stayed warm and safe.