Day 18. Best Party Ever

Yes I am now 5 days behind.   And yes, I am running out days even if I double up. I'll figure it out.  In the mean time here is Jodi's second post this year.  I have mixed feelings about this post because as it turns out Jodi & Tom were not able to make it after all.  Jodi was not very specific in her reasons for the last minute cancellation, but given her glowing review of the party I can only assume her cancellation was for the greater good.  Negotiating peace in the Middle East or perhaps William and Kate needed some discrete marital counseling?  Who can say?  Well Jodi could elaborate, but then she would probably have to kill me.  Not that she would actually kill anyone. She has people for that. Allegedly.

Best Party Ever 2014

You may have heard a rumour that this will be the best KinKade Christmas party since 1992.

It’s true. (Snopes hasn’t picked it up yet, but it’s only a matter of time.)

You see, 1992 was the last time I was able to attend a KinKade Christmas party.

We were all still newlyweds that year. (By “we” I mean the “They’ll Never Make It” Club – Judson & Kathleen, Eric & Stacey and Tom & Jodi. Try to keep up.) We thought we were adults, but we were really still on the cusp. Yes, we were paying bills (most of the time) and drinking wine (a lot of the time), but we also had a certain amount of freedom that resulted in things like the KinKade Christmas Party. It was a given that we would drive from Texas to Oklahoma for the fete and assumed we would make it a yearly trek.

What a difference a year makes! Christmas 1993 and we were at home with a very new baby. There was no way we were going to expose a two-week old to the germ stew of a party. (I’m sure you all practice very good hygiene, no offense intended.) No biggie, we’ll be back next year.

We went up in 1994, but a rapid succession of family tragedies kept us from, well, everything. (Three deaths in two weeks has a way of taking the party right out of people.)  I don’t even remember 1995. Seriously, like I don’t remember anything about that year. By 1996, I was expecting our second child at any time and absolutely was not going to risk having her in Oklahoma. (I did go to DisneyWorld that month. Having my baby in an “It’s a Small World” boat seemed much less repulsive than having her in Oklahoma.) Another couple of years of just “stuff happens” and suddenly we are locked in to spending all of December involved in The Nutcracker. For eternity.

Every year the invitation would arrive and I would open the calendar, full of hope that this would be the year. Every year it took about 10 seconds to realize that unless cloning and /or teleportation were involved we’d never make it.

Each year became a little harder to bear.                                                       

It’s not like I didn’t see my friends. It’s not like we didn’t attend any Christmas parties at all. But no other parties could match the magic of a KinKade party. It wasn’t because they are excellent party planners (they are), but because their party is a product of the heart. There is a not insubstantial amount of time and money involved, but that is brushed aside because the KinKades want to bring a little joy to their friends. That’s the difference between A party and THE party.

Twenty-two years after our last appearance and we are finally making it back. You know to what I am most looking forward? The feeling that they kept the party going all these years just so it would be there when I came back.

Because that is how the KinKades throw a party.