Coming Together

Like many thousands (millions?) of households, we hosted a Super Bowl Party this past weekend. Ours was, of course, for the Gate.
Since it was for the church, we used the church's sound equipment and projector for the ultimate game experience. After a full day of cleaning, and another full afternoon of rearranging furniture, people started to come in. We ended up with a good crowd, and way too much food.
Since no one was vested in any one team, for the most part, no fights broke out. There were good natured threats of course. And one person was calling the score, but no one else wanted the prize of all the left over food.
The Denny's "Nannerpus" commercial was the big hit, and I have enjoyed watching facebook friends add pictures of this strange breakfast food. The commercial apparently failed its mission, because rather than turn folks off of the ridiculous food, several of us were wanting to consume the nannerpus.
In the midst of all this, something great happened. People talked. College students and young adults interacted with small kids, and everyone spent the evening catching up and getting to know each other better. It was great for building community, and it was great to be a part of.
We also learned a valuable parenting lesson. When your preschool daughter wants to take her shirt off, like the 2 year old boy (he had spilled alot on his shirt) the difusing of this potential bad habit is to inform the girl that the cool factor of a girl in a princess dress is equal to or greater than the cool factor of a shirtless boy.
On many levels.