Is Thursday the new Saturday?

Unless Christmas is on a Friday, the weekend before it seems sacrosanct and no one has parties. The perception is that the guest list will be out of town or busy with family. This year, the weekends are Dec 1/2, 8/9, 15/16, and 22/23. If we were doing our biennial cheesecake party, I'd be lobbying for the 22nd (if there weren't a family party already) because, well, just because I think everyone would be in their ho-hum what-do-we-do-now-until-the-24th? stage and would gratefully show up. They might have relatives in tow, but that would be fine with me. We always have plenty.

Given the perceived Saturday crunch, Thursdays have become popular. We just received our third invitation to a Christmas party on Thursday, Dec. 13. We have no such invitations to any of the Saturdays in December, although we have managed to provide our own entertainment on one of them and the other, the 22nd, is, like I said, a family Christmas celebration.

I already see where this is going because it's happening year after year. We're not going to have any parties on those Saturdays. Or Fridays. Twenty years ago it was a social whirlwind. Maybe the people who'd invite us to parties are just too old to give them.

So we'll be home with a DVD, threatening the cats within an inch of their tails if they tear up one more package under the tree, and resting up from all the Thursday parties.