Show me the money

Last night was my husband's holiday party. It is held at a nice restaurant or club every year. Open bar, appetizers offered by servers, nice buffet food and wine served to the table. As I was preparing for this evening I was realizing that it would be the same as last year where I barely knew anyone and had to do some of the small talk with people I didn't know. It takes a lot of energy (and money on our side for sitters) to participate in this type of evening. I told my husband that, instead of having this party, why don't they give us the money they are spending on the event?

Having said that, there is one person (really couple) that attends that I look forward to seeing there. In some ways she is my 'soul sister' here. I met her at a park the first weeks we had moved here and the whole summer we made plans together and spent hours getting to know each other and even went camping together. They live in another town (but not that far away) and so our paths really do not cross now that we've settled into our lives. We don't see each other AT ALL in the year but when we go to this work party we sit with heads together chatting, catching up, solving a problem here and there...so for just that, I guess I can make the effort to attend these events. My one dilemma is that they may move to China at some point, so I'll be at a loss then...but who knows things can change for us too, that is the beauty of life, nothing is ever the same. Sometimes sameness is a necessity for survival and sanity and sometimes sameness can lead to getting stuck in a rut....in my life I have dealt with and welcomed change, I do change well.