I.  Things for the party began to fall apart a few days before Friday.  It was small things at first.  

Zen-Den got food poisoning, a rarity, and took to bed for 32 hours.  He felt horrible, but eventually rallied.  His illness was unexpected, but no reason to cancel a party.

[Poor guy.]     

Then I had ridiculous problems placing the “customizable” deli sandwich tray order.  We had received a brochure in the mail that told us what was available and at what price.  Well, when I went in to place the order, turned out that for the deli, the word “customizable” meant me choosing between turkey or chicken salad on rolls of the deli’s choosing.  

[Say what?]

And then at the bakery the man told me that I couldn’t have the Santa Claus face, made of cupcakes, that had been such a hit at last year’s party.  He told me that the woman who decorated them no longer worked there, so wouldn’t I like a boring red + white candy cane cupcake cake instead?

[Hell no!]

II.  So on Thursday morning before the party, having survived the aforementioned small debacles, I thought we were in great shape.  House decorated.  Bathrooms cleaned.  Food ordered &/or purchased.  Pretty paper plates + napkins.  Booze aplenty.  Wine glasses washed and ready to go.  Coolers for the beer and soda on the porch.  Gifts wrapped.  Outside decorated.  Guest bedrooms ready for our overnight guests.

I was ready for 54 friends and acquaintances.  Let the party begin.

III.  What happened after Thursday morning is blurry.

First, early in the afternoon some out-of-state guests started calling because the airlines had cancelled their flights due to bad weather heading our way;  these guests wouldn’t be coming to the party.

However, other out-of-state guests’ flights made it here Thursday afternoon/evening– and, as planned, those guests came to stay with us here at the house.

Then, guests who were in-state, but driving long distances, began to phone to cancel because of the bad weather that was heading our way on Friday.

While I knew that we’d miss those faraway guests, that reason alone wasn’t enough to cancel the party for all the local people.  They could still get through, right?

IV.  Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Friday morning we awakened to streets covered in sheets of ice and a winter snow storm headed our way.  The entire region had closed down, anticipating what turned out to be, by mid-afternoon, a Level 2 Snow Emergency with record amounts of snowfall.

How much snow, you ask?  A mere 6.5″!  Yep, that’s enough to stop everything around here.

So Zen-Den & I did the only thing that we could, we cancelled the party.  And spent the day with our house guests– goofing off.  Then at 6:00 p.m. we had THE PARTY with them and two of our guests who happened to be neighbors who were able to walk over to the house.

Where, I have to say, considering how much we six adults ate and drank, a good time was had by all!  😉