Friends

This is the only photo I snapped today, a quick one tonight as we were wrapping up what was a long & leisurely dinner with friends. This is A & E and their friends C & M, enjoying cream puffs for dessert.

It was a great night: yummy tom kha gai/tom kha tofu soup, rice, and wine for the grown-ups; chicken nuggets, broccoli, and milk for the kids, and cream puffs all around afterwards. The kids entertained themselves in the playroom, so the grown-ups got a chance to visit and have fairly coherent, minimally-interrupted conversation (something we're not especially used to!)

We met these friends within a month or two after moving here two years ago, and they're a regular fixture in our lives, including almost-weekly playdates and lots of joint family adventures. It's nice to have spent enough time together at this point that we don't have to stress about anything when we get together - we can just pick up where the conversations last left off, and we know that we have similar enough values and parenting styles that we can all jump in and handle the kids when needed, without worrying that we're stepping on toes.

I feel happy and blessed.