Do you know anyone that always has to be in the limelight? I’m talking about the kind of person that will go out of their way to get invited to social events and to make sure that everyone they know is aware of it. This type of activity never interested me a great deal. I have attended a few upper level social gatherings and found them to be pretentious and a bit boring. My girlfriend on the over hand tries to attend every possible social event that she can. I love her dearly، however she does like to name drop، especially in political circles، and this gets annoying very quickly.
Through the years my husband and I have decided that we are no longer going to attend social gathering that were not fun. We work hard and do not want to spend our off time attending events or spending time with people that we do not enjoy. As a result we do a great deal of entertaining in our home and are also invited to other’s homes for dinner parties and other gatherings. We used to be involved in new year events where all the important political and business people would be. These new year events were usually fund raisers، so we would start the new year and end the old year spending money on causes that we were losing interest in. Many times these funding raising events are help in conjunction with new year events so people can use the donation as a write off for their taxes.
Three years ago we started a new tradition foe New Years. We get together with three other families that we are close to. Our children are close in age and get along well. We have a potluck supper and spend the evening playing games and visiting. One year we had enough snow to go sledding together. It is a relaxing time where we are not fighting crowds، we are not spending large amounts of money at fund raisers or in restaurants and no one is having to travel. It is a safe way to spend the holiday and also include the children in the evening. I like the idea of spending the beginning of a new year with people I love and who love me. It makes it easier to reflect back on the good that has happened through the year. My girlfriend is disappointed that I have stopped going to the social events with her، but after listening to her descriptions of the parties she attends، I am glad I am hanging out with the neighbors.
