We've wanted to get rid of the blue shudders since we bought the house. We finally got to it the first week of December!
Before
Such a difference! The neighbors are excited to not have to look at the blue anymore, too. :-)
We've been wanting to invite our neighbors over to get to know them since we moved into the house. Life is so different here from Brooklyn. We almost never see our neighbors since most people come home from work and drive in their garage and then drive out the next day! We finally got our act together and had a party in early December. Everyone we invited came! About 24 people. We met some neighbors for the first time inviting them and some for the first time at the party. Our neighbor across the street has a sister and her husband and a son and daughter-in-law who live on the block. They all came! Hopefully, now that we've made this first connection we will be able to get to know our neighbors better. One neighbor said "This was fun, we'll have to do it again soon!" Almost everyone had somewhere they had to be later that afternoon or evening but they all made the effort to come to our party, for at least a little while, anyway. It really made us feel welcomed to the neighborhood.
These pictures were taken after the party but I'm mainly posting them so I'll remember how I decorated for Christmas when we're ready to decorate again next year. It was a full week of work to figure out how to decorate this house for the first time!
The leftovers from our party. You can't see it in the picture, but we got rid of the brass chandelier and Paul installed a white ceiling fan last week. It looks so much nicer and we're really going to appreciate it next summer.
Even though we had lots of places for people to sit in the living room, and most of the food was in the dining room, everyone congregated in the kitchen, standing around and chatting. It was the first time some of the neighbors had met each other!
We got a real Christmas tree for the first time since we first moved to Brooklyn (over 17 years ago!) And Paul got his different colored lights (instead of all white) this year.
smile emoticon
Paul got the garage organized and the pool table cleared off for the party. He was hoping to hang out with some of the guys. No one really played pool during the party but one of the guys said, "I'm going to have to remember that you have this!"
When I posted about our neighbor party on FB several of our friends from Brooklyn who had moved away years before we did commented that they've lived in their neighborhoods and still don't know their neighbors. Here are some of their comments and some of my responses:
A friend: "We barely know our neighbors Even our church is a bit distant compared to Brooklyn"
Me: "Same here. We've been in our house since August and we've only had one neighbor come over and talk to us. All the others we had to make an effort to go over to them when they were outside and talk to them. it takes a lot more work to get to know people in the suburbs. We need to get involved in small groups and serving to get to know anyone at church. We're not going to really get to know anyone or even meet people on a Sunday morning. One idea for getting to know your neighbors is to turn your front yard into your back yard. Bring your grill, firepit, whatever you hang out around in your back yard and do it out front where you'll see your neighbors and can invite them over. On Halloween we brought our firepit out front and roasted marshmallows while we passed out candy and chatted with the neighbors who came by. We just bought a swing on Craigslist and have it set up in our front yard. I'm hoping we'll see neighbors while we're out swinging and can invite them over to chat. We're just trying to figure out ways to get to know people and build community. I haven't read it yet but our church did a series based on this book The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon"
Another friend: It's the same way here in p.a .I been here 6 yr and only know people from the pool
Then the next weekend, this happened!:
Me: For those of you living in the suburbs and having a hard time meeting your neighbors, I have a suggestion: buy a swing and put it in your front yard and use it! I decided to sit outside and swing and crochet a little this afternoon and had Daniel come out and help me arrange the swing so it was level. The lady who lives across the street came home and saw us moving the swing and came over and offered to help. We ended up swinging and chatting for over 2 hours! I'm hoping for many more swing chats and nice weather to make them possible. I'm also looking forward to seeing who buys the house next door to us and welcoming them to the neighborhood.
One of our neighbors is really into gardening. During the party, I showed her my garden and she offered to take care of it while we were gone to KY for Christmas. Things got busy the rest of Dec. and I didn't see her again. On the day we were getting ready to leave for KY she called and asked if I still wanted her to take care of the garden. She'd remembered! She ended up not needing to do anything since it was in the 60s and rainy the whole time but I was touched that she'd remembered and cared enough to call. We asked our neighbor across the street to check our mail for us while we were gone and she texted me while we were gone saying that she hoped we didn't mind that they'd pulled our trashcans out to the curb on trash night so we wouldn't miss a pickup! We are so blessed to have caring and thoughtful neighbors here.
It's January 3rd and in a few minutes we're going to watch some of our Brooklyn neighbors on TV! They are on the HGTV show Beach Front Bargain Hunt. Looking forward to "seeing" them again. :-)
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