This post, drafted and scheduled from the past, is a foreshadowing of the days ahead.  As we prepare for our Algonquin trip, in which we’ll be completely off the grid, past the normal time and date I would write up a new post, I needed to get ahead of things and so wrote this a week early.  So much to do, and so little time, as they say.  With that in mind, I’ve already written about camping and all the it means to me, so I won’t bore with those particulars again.  Instead, my thoughts and plans are actually even further ahead than the backcountry, because just as soon as we get back, the preparations start for our next big event, where we are going to party like it’s 1984.

Party planning, or perhaps I should say, party ‘over’-planning, is something that Alison and I bonded over very early on in our relationship.  We both love being surrounded by good people, we both love hosting, we both love going over the top, and we both love laughing for hours on end.  In the earliest days of our partnership, we formed what quickly became a summer tradition for many, many years: The Beandricks Summer Highlander.

Certainly not a completely original concept, the Beandricks Highlander ran for 5 years and can be summarized simply as a gathering of adult kids in a park in Guelph, where Alison and I would set up various games, challenges, contests and competitions for each of our friends.  Participants would compete and collet points throughout each challenge as individuals, but they would also be part of a rotating team; meaning that each game or challenge would be done in groups, and the winning group collected points, which you would keep for yourself, but then in the next game, your team mates would change.  The games might include chugging a slurpy as fast as you can, diving for pennies at the bottom of a pool, various obstacle courses, be the first to assemble a lego structure – where the pieces were frozen in ice and had to be thawed using only your body.  They could be trivia questions, drinking a beer from a baby bottle, or feats of engineering.  They were never serious, always fun, and it brought all of our friend groups together for a day of laughs.  Food and drink would be provided, and the top three winners would bring home cash prizes.  That’s just how we liked to roll.

From there we started a Christmas party tradition, where once again we’d gather with all of our friends to eat, drink and be merry.  We held our own version of a secret Santa in tandem with the party, only the objective was to bring a present that reminded you somehow of the recipient you were responsible for.  A children’s toy or game that perhaps struck a memory of when you met that person, or a time you shared together.  There was a price-limit, of course, so nothing got out of hand, but the intention was to focus the gift on the thought of the person and not be about the material item, necessarily.  At the end of the party, all of the toys, gifts and games were collected and donated to local charity as part of their toy drive.

Then there was our Where’s Waldo Party: thirty plus adults, all dressed up as Waldo, storming downtown Guelph for a night of dancing, food, drink and silliness.  As we piled out of cabs and stumbled into various bars and restaurants, we made quite the amusing scene for those around us and should any lucky stranger actually identify the real Waldo (because, yes, only one of us was assigned the full costume and attire for this event), then a prize of course awaited them.

No party, however, could compete with our wedding.  A three-day event filled with music, games, dancing, food, laughter, adventure, food, archery, paddling, food, swimming, drinks, food, friends and family. I’ve written about this at length before, so I will not dwell; suffice to say that we wanted our celebration to be epic, and we succeed.  Of course getting married to the most amazing person I know was the greatest thing come out of that weekend, but there are so many moments and memories alongside that which I will never forget.

Then we had kids.

Now, I am not even one bit resentful about that, I swear.  Our girls are the highlight of my life and I am so grateful for who they are and who they’ve helped me become.  That doesn’t change the fact that having kids also means entering a different stage of life; as much for us as for our friends.  Elaborate parties with all of your friends are not quite as easy to orchestrate when you’ve got little people to keep alive.  And so, our Highlander, our Christmas parties, our dress up events, have all taken a back seat for the past 8 years, with is completely fine with me in the sense that I can’t stay up past 9:00 anyway.  Still, I can’t deny that I miss a certain aspect of those events, which is why I’m looking quite forward to a couple of weekend from now and the first big event we’ve thrown in years.

With so many of our friends and loved ones hitting a milestone birthday this year, it only seemed fitting to kick the kids out of the house, hire a band, cook up excess amounts of food, decorate, dress-up, go tubing, and celebrate across two days of Summer with as many people as we can.  Being 42 and 22 all at the same time sure does sound like a complicated mix of staying up late and Robaxacet.  Do I look forward to the following day?  Ha!  Truth told, I don’t look forward to the FOUR days that follow, but I am sure as heck going to love being in the moment.   So, for all the parties and celebrations that came before, and for all the times yet to be had – cheers!