Holidailies: Silver and Gold

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth

Way back in 1997 I held my first Chocolate and cookie making party. I still lived in my parents' house and a bunch of us squished into the den to play a board game because my sister had overtaken the family room adjacent to the kitchen. It was chaotic and awesome.

The following year I was living in the FIJI house and when I had the cookie party there, my "brothers" asked what kind of party I was having that required plastic sheets. Hilarity!

We moved the cookie party out to Chnanners' parents place for a few years and it seemed to snowball into this crazy awesome time. Over shared sprinkles and oven fresh cookies friendships became cemented and strengthened. In a time when life was throwing crazy curve balls, it helped me find the true meaning of family.

D and I had our first Christmas away from our families in Prince George and it was terrifying and lonesome and we were so lucky to be brought into someone else's family where we broke bread and shared in the warmth of their holiday sesason. But I missed my cookie party and the comradarie and chaos. I wondered if anyone else missed it.

As the years passed, other traditions grew and our family grew too and the cookie party crumbled a bit as other people and places took on importance. Friendships, too, fluctuated and spun closer and further, sometimes driven by distance, sometimes by effort.

And here we are, 14 years later, we've revived the cookie party for the kids that now run around our feet, the same friends sharing laughter, food and fun. I now have to make sure that every crumb is gluten free and safe but no one seems to notice as we snap pics of laughing babies and tease each other about decades of friendship. And as I look around and marvel about how things change, I realize that things also stay the same.

And that is gold

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see
Silver and gold decorations
On ev'ry Christmas tree