Scenes from a party

Neither Ziad nor Maya got a birthday party this year. There are lots of little reasons, and maybe even a big one, but those are not the point here. The point is, they never stopped thinking that was eventually going to be a birthday party, or anyway some kind of party, and even a party that they shared would be just fine. They just never gave up.

So we decided to have a Thank-you-for-inviting-me-to-your-party party. In other words, a party consisting of everyone who had invited them to a birthday party during the year. This turned out to be hard to distinguish from an actual birthday party, because everyone brought presents anyway.

They had a blast.

And for posterity, I am recording my three favorite memories of the afternoon:

Little girls literally everywhere, running hither and yon, all with colored silk scarves on their heads.

A debonair young man of eleven holding out his plate to be served, saying, "Ziad recommends the marble cake."

Ziad and his friend Emily on their stomachs under the dining room table, heads and shoulders poking out, folding origami.

It turns out that when you don't plan activities or entertainment for kids they are more than capable of filling the void on their own. Our house was a veritable beehive of activity for several hours. I realize that I am the very definition of an introvert, but I loved having all that happy energy around.

I proved my true introvert nature after the party, though, because once I sat down on the couch after most everyone had left, I couldn't get back up again.