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Billy is Throwing a Party

Billy the Badger was sometimes confused with William the Marmot. Not because he looked like him but only because of the similarity of their names. But Billy could not be more different from William. Oh no!

Billy was very sociable and from the minute he took possession of his new sett he knew he wanted to have a party. He thought that he would invite all of his facebook friends. All 287 of them. It would be the biggest party the North Woods had ever seen!

Weeks before the date of his party, Billy began gathering together supplies. He bought environmentally friendly paper plates and compostable cutlery. He threw 288 small drinking pots on his potter's wheel and fired them in his tiny kiln 7 at a time. He hand sewed 288 table napkins and baked 288 cupcakes. He hand ground enough coffee for 574 cups (he thought everyone would have two but his math, like most badgers, wasn't very good).

In his little wine press Billy made litres and litres of dandelion wine (which he assumed everyone liked) and in his toilet he made four litres of raisin jack. This was a fair sized inconvenience because it meant that during the several days it was steeping he had to go do his business outside in the woods. He didn't like that very much but he thought ultimately it would be worth it.

Everyday, several times a day, Billy checked his facebook event page to see who else was attending. Everyday more people signed up. Maybes became yeses. It was very exciting to see and Billy would rejuvenate himself whenever he got tired from his preparations by looking at the new confirmed attendees.

Some days, like the day that he made 288 party hats out of construction paper and the day that he unloaded all the 4'X8' folding wooden tables that he had rented, he was very tired when he climbed into bed at night. Some days Billy wondered if it was worth it. But then he thought of all the fun he would have meeting his 287 facebook friends for the first time and he got excited all over again.

The day of the party Billy was up very very early. He just couldn't sleep anymore so once the sun peeped up over the horizon in the Ole Meadow Billy jumped out of bed and started his day.

It was hard for him to make his breakfast because his kitchen was so jammed with all the food he had made for his party: huge tubs of potato salad and coleslaw, hundreds of pre buttered dinner rolls, peeled baby carrots and de-stringed snap peas from his own garden, plates and plates of cold cuts and veggie slices (Billy thought some of his guests might be vegetarians) and several rhubarb and strawberry pies. It was a whole lot of food but Billy didn't want anyone to go hungry.

After breakfast Billy went to check on the large marquee tent he had rented and erected on his lawn. It looked great. And Billy thought it would look even better once he finished affixing all the streamers and balloons.

It took Billy most of the day to fill all the balloons and hang the rest of the decorations. As it got close to 4PM (the set hour for the party) he realised that he was really quite tired. A part of him wondered if he had maybe overdone it a little with all the preparations. After all he wanted to be lively enough to be a good host. But when he thought of meeting all his new friends he got excited again and his energy levels went way up.

You might be surprised to learn that almost all of Billy's facebook friends showed up and the party was a huge success! Everyone agreed, it was the best time they ever had!

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