Adult Parties: |
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| Why do Kids Have
All the Fun? |
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| I've Been Thinking... | Fall, 1999 |
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| Successful kids' parties are planned around
activities. Why do adult parties center around food, alcohol, and
smoking? |
What is a party? "A gathering for social entertainment" according to Webster. | |
| The parties I remember with greatest joy are those
where something was done, learned, or a product made. |
 photo by Les |
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| Les took these pictures at his grandson Rick's
birthday party. |
"Moving In" Open House |
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My sister Martha moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Wichita, Kansas. Since she had less than a week to move and get settled before starting work, we knew she would not have time to get to know the neighbors.
A couple of us planned a "Moving In" Open House.
We printed invitations and put them on the doors of the neighbors. "We will be unloading the U Haul truck on Thursday, July.... Please stop over to introduce yourselves and have a glass of punch." Name and address were included.
It turned out to be a terrific way for her to meet the neighbors. And for the neighbors to meet each other for the first time, even though they'd lived on the same block for years. |
The word "entertainment" seems to elicit diverse opinions. One person's work is another's entertainment. As we get older, we seem to be hard to entertain and thus it becomes expensive. |
| Thoreau, in his Journal, March 11, 1856 says "That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest." | Quilting Party |
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When I was growing up, Mom would have the ladies from church over for a quilting party. The dining table was set aside and the quilting frame was set on the backs of the dining room chairs. Everyone stood or sat around the frame, visiting and working on the quilt. Instead of drinking and visiting and waking up with a hangover the next day, they finished the quilt to be raffled at the church bazaar to raise money. They had a sense of accomplishment. |
Other Parties Remembered |
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Sausage-making parties that culminated in everyone having a piece of freshly made sausage.
Wintertime taffy-pulling parties when everyone took homemade taffy with them, as well as the knowledge of how to make it.
We had a party at home cutting out and decorating Christmas cookies for the whole family.
Christmas cookie parties where it was so much easier to learn how to make those various treats by watching someone else make them than by reading the directions in a cookbook. Everyone took home a wide variety of cookies for their holiday entertaining.
Moving parties where we moved a friend's belongings and got our exercise without going to the health club. |
Broadening
the Definition of "Entertainment" Healthy living, low-fat, exercise, stress reduction were buzzwords of the 90's. Restructuring entertainment and parties to reflect healthy living by moving away from TV, snack foods, cocktail parties, towards simpler more active entertainment that provides a sense of accomplishment would be more in keeping with the trends of today.
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Party Ideas for the Winter Holidays |
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| Similar to planning a child's party, center the party around an activity rather than around food, smoking, and drinking. | Greeting card-making party. Jump onto the current
trend away from the commercial toward a more personal approach to the
holidays by making your own greeting cards. Guests like to be involved
in the party. Ask each guest to bring a greeting card idea and things
for making it. Just to be sure the party has a variety, identify 4 or 5
special guests and work with them. The party would consist of
demonstrations followed by guests experimenting with the technique being
demonstrated. For example, spatter painting a cut-out from a card
received last year; making a rubbing from an embossed card or design;
computer designed cards using shareware that the guests can take with
them; designs using rubber stamps; whatever you enjoy. Variation on the Christmas Cookie Exchange. I've gone to some of these parties where we each brought 7 dozen cookies and then took a variety home with us, but during the party all we did was to sit around and eat cookies. Have the guests actually involved in making cookies and/or breads and rolls during the party. One person does the demonstration and others learn. It is so much more interesting and less fattening. |
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If you would like to view all pages of the Fall Annalog in the sequence listed below, just follow these autumn-colored arrows at the bottom of each page. |  |
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