Literary Party 2021 - Breaking Bread with Dead Poet's

 It has been so long since I have been here that I couldn't properly remember the URL or that it was 'blogspot' not 'blogpost'! When I did finally manage to find my way over here, I noticed that my last post was from March 2020.

2020 had started off with a bang, including some big trips - one to Las Vegas in January for work, and then to Niger, Africa, in February - also for work. 

Then we had the pandemic, the "shut down", which commenced a strange short of new life. Once the shock wore off, adjustments were made, we reveled in home life, and were also exhausted by decision-making and juggling. We made the decision to home school for the 2020-2021 school year, which felt overwhelming, and it was, but it also turned out to be growth inducing and lovely. We learned to be still, and while the ache of being apart from family and friends felt visceral at times, there was also healing that happened.  All the rushing about in the early years of my kids' life, and being away from them for the majority of the day when they were babies was apparently a sort of wound that needed time to heal and this time was that, very unexpectedly. I stopped posting here, but I shared plenty on Instagram.  I made a lot of videos, we heralded the coming of 2021, went on a lot of hikes, started playing more tennis, and I had increasingly more times of quiet reading with the kids, which was a dream come true. 

The year proceeded to fly by at lightening speed with summer heartedly enjoyed with those we hadn't seen in a while.  School commenced for the girls in their local public school in the fall, and I went back to work.  We survived September for all those necessary adjustments and then we come to October, which is what this post will have photos of - the 2021 literary party.  This year, instead of a particular book, author or theme, we decided to have everyone just dress up as their favorite literary character.  It was the first time in a while that we had gathered like this; it was the cherry on top that we got to see everyone together in costume. 

Laura took these lovely photos and I felt they had to be shared somewhere, and so here we are. 

 

And here we have each of the families: 

The Mysterious Benedict Society 

The Phantom Tollbooth

Harriet Vane!!! and Co. 

The Wingfeather Saga

Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Stevenson, Jim Hawkins and The Black Arrow

Medusa, Poseidon, and the Gray Sisters

Edgar Allan Poe, Jo March, Reepicheep and a Narnian dryad

 

I mean, how fantastic is he as Poe!

Peter Rabbit

Horton Hears a Who!

Here is the video I made for this years' if you want to see: 

https://vimeo.com/641228869 

And for my archvies, videos of past years' literary parties:

Neverland (2015): https://vimeo.com/144295107
Wonderland (2016):  https://vimeo.com/189538480 
Narnia (2017): https://vimeo.com/472042031 
All Dahled Up (2018): https://vimeo.com/305401760
Fairytalia (2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo4OruYC-20
Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden & The Little Princess (2020) (no video because we didn't attend this one!)