I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned that we have neighbors on either side of us here behind the church this year. To our right (looking from the inside toward the windshield), we have a 5th wheel with a youngish man living in it. His name is Davis. To our left, in a 24-foot trailer, are Serenity and Jose. The 2 couples haven’t really had a chance to get to know Davis very well, so tonight, I called everyone together for a neighborhood block party!
Today’s weather was near 70 and tonight is supposed to be mild. Tomorrow it’s going to rain and the temperatures will get cooler this week, so this was the best day to do this. There is a firepit on the church grounds and earlier today, I had noticed that it was stocked with good, dry wood, so I told everyone this afternoon to meet there after sunset. Mark and I walked down the path to the firepit in the light just before the sun went down to get a fire going.
You see the big cable spool Mark is sitting on in the picture above. There are 3 of them around the firepit. This was built for the youth group at church, but I don’t think they’ve used it for a long time. We neighbors sat around it from about 5:30 – 10:00 pm. I was feeding the fire until everyone arrived, and then Jose began doing so. By the end of the evening, ashes were built up clear to the top of the pit!
Mark sat relatively silent, as did Jose, while Serenity and Davis and I talked. We got really deep and personal and got to know each other pretty well. We could hear fireworks going on around the neighborhood, and sometimes we could see little fireworks shooting up not too far away. Towards the end of the evening, we started hearing people banging pots and pans. There was a half-moon out. It was clear at first, but by the time we were ready to go home, it was starting to get foggy. I had told everyone to bring coats and flashlights for later. It would have been fun to roast marshmallows, but none of us had any. Still, we had a really good fireside chat and enjoyed each others’ company. It was a great way to end 2022.
May 2023 be a good one for you!