I agonize over parties. I lose sleep over them. It�s why I don�t entertain much. But despite my neuroses, I usually think having the people I like in the same room tends to work out well for me most of the time. And also, I like to feed people. Especially when the food involves things I can�t justify having in the house on other occasions. Foods that involve dark chocolate. And bacon. And large quantities of butter.

I have much the same reaction to my parties as I do to concerts I conduct. I don�t usually have a good read on whether or not it was successful. I only know whether or not I had fun. And I did. And people stayed forever. The first guests arrived a little after 1 and the last ones didn�t leave until close to 9 p.m.

Of course, when parties are really bad, it�s usually obvious. Like the time one of my guests ended up duct-taped to my desk chair (it still had the sticky spot on the back when I finally tossed it a year or so ago). Or the time where one of my friends and the boyfriend of one of my friends ended up grilling my then-boyfriend so badly that he disappeared, never to be seen again. Until I met him at another bad party, which I was attending with my new boyfriend. Who apparently knew him. I had no idea. Now THAT was a bad party.

This time, though, I wasn�t sure. Did my friend H. enjoy being cornered by my mother-in-law or was she stuck, awaiting rescue that didn't come soon enough? How many times was DJ going to gamely field questions about where he went to high school asked by my assorted male relatives who are nutso about Chicago high school sports? Was 10-year-old G. really content to watch football or was he bored out of his mind? Was fairlywell freaked out when her cover was blown? It�s okay � my mother-in-law still has no idea what a blog is.

I�ve always found the tradition of First Footing attractive. It seems to start the year off right to have the people you like best in your home of the first day of the year. And when there�s bacon involved, how bad could it be?

Don�t answer that.

The house is now spotless (I like cleaning up after parties almost as much as preparing for them) and well enough stocked with leftovers to keep me from having to cook again for several days at least. Thus absolved from chores, AJ and I struck out on a small adventure this morning.

One of our party guests was telling us about getting involved with letterboxing. Although I�d heard of geocaching, where participants use GPS devices to follow a series of clues to a hidden box, I�d never heard of letterboxing. Letterboxing works similarly to geocaching, but is decidedly lower tech, and it consists of an appealing combination of hiking, puzzles, and art. Letterboxers carry with them a compass (not usually necessary, but recommended for some boxes), a rubber stamp (usually specially carved to represent themselves in some way), ink pads or markers, a pen, and a notebook to use as a log. Boxes are hidden in public areas, often parks. Letterboxers decipher clues and try to find the box. When located, the letterboxers will find each box to contain a rubber stamp and a log. The letterboxers then stamp their own notebooks with the stamp in the box and then leave their own stamp in the log in the box. They may also write a message. Then they hide the box back where it came from so that others may have the fun of finding it themselves.

I�m always looking for ways to persuade AJ to join me hiking. When I found clues to a box in a nearby park, I suggested we head out to look for one ourselves. We didn�t have a chance to make our own rubber stamp, so AJ picked out a Snoopy stamp from his art box, along with a red stamp pad and a small blue notebook.

AJ was very excited and read the clues over and over again in the car on the way to the park. He found the beginning of the trail immediately and we wandered through the woods looking for out next landmark. We were both excited when we found the first box, which contained a stamp carved to look like the head of a duck. Even more exciting, though, was that the first box contained clues to a second box. After we stamped both logs and hid the box, we continued on and found the next box, with a stamp of a honeybee, hidden a little further into the park.

We had such a good time, that AJ didn�t complain once about walking back to the car, something that he has done every time we have walked down that same trail before. We are hoping to use the boxes as an excuse to get him to hike with us in the future. Maybe we�ll even plant a few of our own.

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