12.18.16 - Julie's Paint Party

Originally for Julie's birthday she was going to host a paint party where the guests painted pencil outlines she had made of scenes she loves and then the paintings were our gifts to her and she could hang them around her house. However, due to stress from work and being generally very busy, Julie decided a few days before the party to call it off and just have people over for snacks and wine.

But Denny was having none of it. He secretly messaged Mom and the other siblings and arranged for us to have the paint party after all. Because Denny himself can't sketch the scenes Julie would want painted, he ordered paint-by-number kits for the guests instead. He then bought a bunch of delicious snack food and secretly invited more people over to arrive and surprise her. He even arranged their basement to be set up for painting, and as a cover story he told Julie he needed to set it up that way to work indoors on the transmission.

Julie knew I was coming over with Clara (and Jack) because she and I had planned (also secretly) to create a painted grand kid footprint craft for Mom for Christmas. We invited Ellen along too just to hang out. This worked out well because when Ellen and Clara and I arrived it created no suspicion. We went in the basement and Zoey very excitedly showed Clara how she can jump from Julie and Denny's bed to the over-sized red cushion. Clara thought it was hilarious.

As we were getting set up for the footprint craft. Mel and Elizabeth also showed up. But I guess they do show up from time to time, since they are Denny's family, so while Julie seemed pleasantly surprised she still didn't seem suspicious. But when our cousin Becky, her husband Matt, and their boy Damien also showed up, she got skeptical. She asked Denny if he had planned this all along and, grinning happily, he admitted he had.

So then the women all got set up to paint and the men took the kids upstairs to get them out of the way. That was so nice - it was very relaxing to be able to sit on the floor with paints all around and not worry about the kids getting everything everywhere. Denny kept coming downstairs with more and more food - he had a lot of wine and some beer, some really great flavored pita chips and dip, pizza, and, above all (in my mind) mozzarella sticks. Mmmmm.

Julie had done two sketches before she had surrendered the paint party idea: Hogwarts and the Golden Gate Bridge. She painted the bridge and I worked on Hogwarts. Meanwhile Ellen, Becky, and Mel & Elizabeth (combined) worked on three of the paint-by-numbers kits, which were far more beautiful and elaborate than any of us had anticipated. I was picturing children's 8x11" sets, pretty basic, but these were more like maybe 2'x18" and very very detailed. Even after nearly 3 hours of working on them, none were even a fifth done. But that's okay, because there's no hurry and they will be gorgeous when finished.

Not too long after we'd gotten going, Mom arrived too. She worked on Ellen's painting with her. We all listened to a jazzy Christmas station in the background.

I got decently far on my Hogwarts painting, though nowhere near finished, alas. Eventually, after Becky and Mel and Elizabeth had gone home, the kids were allowed back downstairs. Clara and Malcolm played with different toys and trikes, and Zoey sat next to me and did her own painting (sun, sky, tree, stick figure). She looked pretty cute in her little apron too.

Overall it was a very delicious and enjoyable and creative time, and I am really glad Denny pushed through and made it happen.