If you were in Toronto last night, you may just be getting home. We had an accident on our main east-west highway and it was a freaking disaster! Took me close to two hours to get home (usually 20 mins!). And I didn’t want to be late! It was my friends Beth and Adam’s annual Deprivacus dinner!
Once a year on Shrove Tuesday, running in tune with Lent, we all get together and say what we’re giving up and what we’re adding in (addicus) – and you bring them to dinner to eat with the pancakes. So last night Will had pancakes, bacon, sausage – with a side of chips, chocolate donuts and gummy worms.
When I walked in last night – it was mayhem. Beautiful, chaotic mayhem. There were a bevy of 3.5 years olds – some with no parents due to traffic and emergency daycare pickups – a few babies and a slew of grown ups. There were tears and wine flowing. There were house plans being read along with library books. There was breastfeeding and hide and go seek.
If you had asked me four years ago if I would be a part of this, I would have shrugged and said nope. I would have put a smile on my face and said ‘god who WOULD want it – give me a beer.’ And I’d be lying to you the same way I would have been lying to myself. I did want it.
I love being a part of this group. I feel incredibly lucky to have a few different circles of friends – all of which are SO important to me in different ways. My neighbourhood group? These will be the people making Will’s memories of childhood. They will lay the foundation for what he wants when he gets older and has a family in the same way my neighbourhood did when I was younger.
He’ll walk to school with them. Probably have his heart broken by a couple of them and maybe break a heart in return. He’ll throw parties at our house when I’m away. They’ll fight. They’ll hug. They’ll be buddies.
And in return – their parents and our friends with older kids, we will all keep each other sane (you said it Alex!) and learn from each other. We’ll drink wine and bourbon sours. We’ll bitch about our kids and our families. We’ll eat chips and dips. We’ll gather bribery material for high school. We’ll watch our kids grow up.
There’s no where else I’d rather be.
(oh and by the way – I gave up fries, chocolate and chips (but I”m allowed to eat them at book club…and I have to drink 8 glasses of water a day…it’s now noon and I haven’t had any.)
Every year I give up chocolate and red wine!!!! But not this year, this year I give up cookies!!!!! I love my wine way too much these days and cookies really are my absolute favourite snack……wish me luck!!!
Your “village” sounds fantastic. You truly are lucky!
I swear my group fills my soul sometimes.
(My friend asked her daughter what she was choosing to give up for lent. She replied “toothpaste”)
No chocolate? You are a superhero. Sounds like a fun gathering. I too treasure my neighbourhood beyond belief. We live on a street with 20 kids and they are literally like one big family, tumbling out of each other’s homes with ease and comfort. it’s one of the things about our house for which I can place no monetary value because it’s such a treasure.
Those really are the best kind of ‘hoods… we live in one of those too, and it rocks. (Though, we’re heavily Jewish around these parts, so we don’t know from the pancake days. Heh.)