Peacock Lane

Mr. W and his friends would meet up regularly for Happy Hour early in their careers. More people added to the group as people started to get married. I came into the picture around this time. It was a nice big group of fairly regular attendants. And then people started breeding. Our numbers began to drop until it was just a small core of bachelors and childless couples. Eventually though we all got on the baby train. I suggested that we start a rotating at home HH rather than searching for kid friendly bars. We call it HH:FE (happy hour: family edition) So we put months in a hat and each family draws. I think the last few years we have just been calling dibbs on months though and we have been taking December.
Since we live in Sunnyside and are so close to Peacock Lane we have everyone over here for supper. The party is BYOTravel mug and we make egg nog, hot buttered rum, coffee, and hot chocolate and everyone can spike their drinks for the walk to Peacock Lane.
Peacock Lane was a development built in the 1920s and is full of Storybook style houses, mostly Tudor Revivals. It is 4 blocks long and is one block east of 39th Ave. Since the late 1920s the neighbors decorate their houses with Christmas lights and it has become a popular Portland tradition. When Mr. W was looking for houses he read a listing which noted that the Christmas lights were included. He didn't know about Peacock Lane then and thought it was the weirdest thing to have in a house's description.
Since Sunnyside is so pro-sustainability Peacock Lane initiated their first car free night last year and they repeated it this year. I know that some SNA board members are encouraging more car free nights in the future and the Peacock Lane community is more than willing to work toward that goal.
I rotated the dining room table to make a bar for the party.
Somehow we have acquired a lot of silver serving pieces since the previous owners in our family grow tired of polishing it. We are glad to accept all new additions! I use Cape Cod polishing rags to remove the tarnish. I find it very easy to use and then I keep the pieces in silver bags to help prevent tarnish forming between uses. This was the first time we actually used the punch bowl. It worked perfectly for the egg nog. Everything looked so sparkly and pretty for Christmas.
I decorated the chandelier for Christmas after seeing my friend Ms. Mc had added the cutest Christmas decorations to hers. This is faux greenery and sugared fruits.
For supper we made a tomato soup and a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches. I also set out a few cookies. These are my great grandma S's raspberry napoleans and some Martha spice cookies.