Bella was very excited about Halloween this year. Last year was the first year that she really looked forward to it, but it was somewhat tainted by the fact that Jim and I separated 2 days before - although that didn't stop me having our annual party (a slightly more stressful one than normal admittedly - although less than it might have been thanks to a very helpful friend, who was truly kind enough to help me prepare whilst I was busy being snappy and uncommunicative!).
The day before Halloween I bought tickets for the girls and some friends to go to a party at a local soft play centre, planning on tiring them out and feeding them there so that I could then spend Friday night cooking the food, decorating and making the party bags for Saturdays party. Allowing me then to spend Saturday morning relatively (it's all relative) relaxed.
Anyway, it was a lovely plan and maybe next year it will work. This year though Bella and I went pretty much straight from the party to the hospital. And instead of spending Friday night preparing for our party on Saturday, I spent it sat in hospital while Bella had yet more steroids, two lots of nebuliser and a ton of her inhaler.
After getting home at 1am and Jim heading out to do a food shop at 2am, we did kind of contemplate cancelling the party but it seemed mean when the only thing that got Bella to comply to the nebuliser was being told that if we got her better she could stil have the party! So... after only 4 hours sleep...
...no pumpkins were carved (first year ever), a lot of decorations didn't go up and the goodie bags weren't made, but beef bourginon, chicken and pumpkin stew and some (admittedly awful) soup was made. And although Jim and I were still throwing our hands up in the air and threatening to cancel right up until the very second that the first guest knocked on the door, within twenty minutes of everyone arriving and the first glass of wine being inhaled, I remembered exactly why I do this every year. We all had so much fun (and so much wine) that no one worried about the state of the place, least of all me!
And we followed it up with a very lazy Sunday, where Jim and I claimed our stakes at the new kitchen table/bench combo that we've got going on (the rest of the kitchen is being put in in less than a week - wahoo!) and Bella and I stayed in our pj's all day!
