The Christmas Adam Story

This year, our annual Christmas Adam party is at two places this year and I cannot help but reflect on the 24 years that have gone by since I invented the damned party! The party and I have evolved and have come a long way since the first one I threw in Colorado Springs that last winter I lived there, way back in 1987...

I had filed for divorce from my volatile husband of nine months and due to Colorado laws at the time, we had to live apart for a minimum of three months before consideration before the court. Unfortunately, I was the one who had fled my condo that horrible night and stayed with some (military and well-armed) friends for protection (and self-preservation). I had to get a court order and a restraining order just to get back into my own property but I eventually did return, only to find that the son-of-a-bitch had either burnt, pawned or destroyed just about everything in the place including family heirlooms.... but, I digress...

I was anxious for a celebration and a holiday party was definitely called for-it was also the first year I could not go home due to the uncertainty of my divorce dates. Knowing that most of my friends (who, at that time were an average of 10-15 years older than I was) had kids or grand kids due in town and would be busy Christmas Eve and Day... I chose to have a cocktail party at my condo and invited a few people over. We had a great time-wound up playing poker until way too late (or way too early)! And spent most of Christmas Eve with a severe hangover, as I recall. Again, I digress... But the event became known then as Christmas Adam (because Adam came before Eve-get it)?

By the following year, I had moved back to St. Louis and had married my husband, Brad. As we approached our first Christmas, we wanted to celebrate our happiness with our friends. That first year was a small gathering as we had eloped and many of our friends still did not know we had married so quickly after we met! (Love can and does occur at first sight!). The second year, we were in our rental house in Brentwood and the house was filled and beaming bright with food, lots of alcohol (and other weapons of mass destruction)... I know... I'm digressing AND might be incriminating myself! Then we moved to the house in Ladue and the party really had some great times! Magicians, musicians and tons of festivities... many will attest to the grand times!

There were a few years when the Christmas Adam party went dormant-when we lived in Southern Illinois and when we first moved to Florida but it has been the last three years that this party has really taken off! That first year at Sally's Backside Bar was the place to be that magical night! Redd started singing and we all joined in as we drank beer and wine and danced the night away! There was probably about 50-70 people there throughout that wonderful evening. Last year, we moved it over to Johnny McTighe's Irish Pub where the libations followed freely and we had a larger venue to accommodate the nearly 150 people that passed through its doors while Redd entertained the early evening crowd and Marc Harris entertained the late evening crowd with the bagpipers of the 23rd Highlander's piping throughout the night! I know I had a good time because many people said that I did, they seemed to have remembered having a good time and they hoped that we would do it again this year.

Well, we are really into physical and mental infliction of pain (which explains why we are married to the other!)-so here we are on the eve of another Christmas Adam and now we are taking over both places-Sally's Backside Bar will feature Redd making the holiday season bright with her voice and songs of good cheer and then upstairs the bagpipers of the 23rd Highlanders will serenade us and Marc Harris will delight us and bring us some great cheer with his fabulous music...

I hope everyone has a great time and makes it home safe and sound... Depending on when the fog in my brain from the party disappears, I will let you know... BTW... Other than the usual Bloody Mary, Mimosa or the likes-does anyone have any suggestion for hangover recovery... I got a feeling I'm gonna need it!