And they all sat in the kitchen

The 'open house' in my newly designed open-floor-plan house went well.....
except the part where nobody left the dang kitchen and actually made use of the recently opened up dining/living rooms. I mean seriously. I spent 5 days on that reno, insisting it be relatively done by the 31st and for what? So everyone could spend the evening in my tiny not-so-eat-in kitchen? Oh the humor of it all.

Honestly the reno project had very little to do with the open house - the open house just gave me a deadline to have it done by (you know - to prevent a doh-dee-doh attitude of getting to it one day).

The reno was 100% for my sanity.

The reno project worked. My sanity is intact (more or less) and for the first time in quite awhile my relateionship with this house isn't teetering on the edge of me going out and renting a bulldozer.

At least the added space gave the kids room to run about while friends came and went. At times up to 16 people crowded into every conceivable space in my kitchen. We had a great time laughing and telling stories and jokes, talking about the future of our business and drinking and eatting our way though the evening. By 9:30 everyone had cleared out, leaving behind a scattered array of almost empty food trays, empty bottles and for some reason there were a whole lot of grapes on my floor.

Aarica went to bed shortly after everyone left and Alan, Tyler, Emily, Owen and I curled up in the living room to watch Shrek2 on TV. I fell asleep on the couch but they woke me up a few minutes before midnight and we counted down to the New Year together.

It really couldn't have been a more perfect night. Having a great time with friends and ending the night with those who matter most. Family.