Happy birthday, Secret Play Date!

Can you believe it? Our little Secret Play Date is a whole year old today.

I was in a more reflective mood yesterday. (Can you tell I wasn't feeling well? It was the tail-end of the cold I get every time I travel.)

Today, it's time to break out the Champagne!

As I said in this post, December 7, 2010 was the very first Secret Play Date. I didn't know what to expect. It was an experiment. And I hoped that people would come along to see what happened.

Play-Dating by the numbers.

• 54 Play Date posts!

• 22 calls with the Society of the Secret Play Date! (We did one in February,  March, and April, and then in May started meeting as a membership every 10 days or so.)

• 4 free sample calls, open to the Play Date-curious!

• 71 photos in the Society Flickr group! (Started in May.)

• 15 posts by awesome Play-Daters (please let me know if I've left yours off - apologies in advance!):

• Joy Agcongay: Dabbling at the intersection of work and play
• Havi Brooks: I went on a Secret Play Date
• Briana Aldrich: I'm not a seamstress, I just play one on Tuesday
• Andrea Schroeder: My Secret Play Date
• Andrea Schroeder: How Playing Made My Work Better
• Haloquin: Secret Tuesday Play Date
• Jesse K: Secret Playdate #1: Big things and tiny things are afoot
• Jesse K: Secret Playdate #2: Talking to the numbers
• Jesse K: Secret Playdate #3: Future Me and the dance of the seven veils
• Jacquelyn Kittredge: The Case for Play
• Janine Adams: Treat Yourself to a Creative Work Session
• Shannon Wilkinson: Playing for Productivity
• Shannon Wilkinson: Screwing up, and Apples, Oranges, and Business
• Juliet: Creativity and colored pens
• Jennifer Erbe: secret play date 8/9/11

Why I'm grateful for Secret Play Date:

• It gave me an excuse to make things again, after many years of not making, without worrying about whether I could call it art, without worrying about having the right materials.

• It introduced me to my Play Date Society friends -- always inspiring, always brilliantly creative.

• It led me to collaborate with Shannon and Joy -- guest experts for 'A Day of Secret Play.'

• And speaking of 'A Day of Play,' it inspired me to lead a day-long date with play.

• It contributed structure to my week. I always know I'll be Play-Dating on Tuesdays.

• It helped me discover a community of people who were open to trying new approaches to moving forward with their stuff.

• It got me invited to teach at Rally!

• It gave me a reason to gather all my Play Date notes into the ebook, Secret Play Date Confidential.

• It reintroduced me to curiosity.

How are we celebrating?

• We can leave birthday wishes for Secret Play Date in the comments!

• We can get together for a free sample Play Date that happens on January 10! Sign up here.

• I'll be unveiling a Secret Play Date Facebook page and we can hang out there, indulging in some virtual cake and bubbly.

How else?

Do you have ideas about how we might celebrate Secret Play Date's first birthday? Let me know in the comments. xo