I like parties. I enjoy attending parties and I especially like hosting parties. My spousal unit and I have hosted two soirees each year for two decades to celebrate the longest day of the year (summer solstice) and the return of light after the the shortest day of the year (winter solstice).
Attendance usually hovers near 40 guests. We present a spread of food and drink. Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches are a staple at all parties. In winter, we have my spouse’s award-winning chili, my Swedish meatballs, smoked salmon, and holiday cookies. Summer solstice soiree menus are more fluid - sometimes sushi, sometimes pulled pork, sometimes burgers and brats. I usually make my Aunt Millie’s pound cake - a cake so massive (contains 6 eggs, 4.5 cups flour, and 2 cups sugar and takes 75 minutes to bake!) that I only bake it when we are having a house full of friends. Drinks are available and plentiful - beer, wine, sparkling wine, gin & tonics, soft drinks, flavored water (Le Croix). In the winter, I fire up the samovar and make tea the Russian way.
This tradition continued — until the COVID pandemic intervened. The last winter solstice party we held was in December, 2018. In 2019, I was deathly ill and in the hospital. And COVID prevented parties in 2020 and 2021 (and will probably this December as well). The summer solstice soiree was cancelled in 2020, but held in 2021 and again this year. Yesterday.
New waves of COVID infections have made people wary of gathering so Spousal Unit and I had difficulty deciding how much food to make. Optimistic, we made the usual quantities. I baked the ginormous Millie’s pound cake. Seventeen guests showed up. I knew some stayed away, fearing COVID. Some were vacationing out of the country. But I wondered if retirement, which distances us from former coworker friends, familiarity that promotes disinterest, and the new acceptance of social avoidance due to COVID are dooming future parties.
Today’s photo shows a solstice soiree spread just for two. Despite cancelling the party one year, Spousal Unit and I decided to celebrate in the usual way, with the usual food, to assuage our loneliness. It helped.
I hope we can safely restore parties in the winter when we must all be indoors. I hope people will continue to gather at our parties to partake of the food, drink, camaraderie, and laughs that occur. And I hope that my social bonds don’t break as I get older - I find I need them and value them and appreciate them.
Party on.