dinner parties

Maybe I could bring back dinner parties?

I want it to be fun, and fancy, and social. But simple, and peaceful, and happy. And sustainable. If I have a single rubric that I follow for the parties, maybe I can do it. 

Description and rubric of my dinner parties, that make it different from a regular dinner and more sustainable in my brain:

  • A real invitation; I'm doing electronic and designed them on Canva
  • A nice meal, which is prepared entirely by me. Some aspects are home-made and others pre-prepared.
    • Drinks: water, wine, and mocktail
    • Main Course: Meat, starch, vegetable
    • Dessert: anything sweet, preferably ties in with the season or mocktail
  • A deliberate and thoughtful table setting, that mildly coordinates with the season or holidays
  • Entertainment
    • Music: Amazon music was the easiest way for me to make a playlist without ads, as I already have Amazon Prime. 
    • Activity: adult oriented activity, but rotate between artsy, games, and just entertaining, with a balance of stereotypically "women" activities
  • Hosting every other month, on the second Thursday, from 6:00pm-8:30pm. 
  • I'm specifically inviting mothers of young children who don't have a great support system. I have a couple of friends who are crashing out, and I would like to help, but I'm not babysitting. So this might be a nice way to combine worlds.
I don't think I've ever attended a true dinner party; several nights out with friends, potlucks, and gatherings. But not a fancy dinner party. My mother-in-law gave us all her dinner party accoutrements - from the dining room table, cloths, chargers, china, Christmas china, water glasses, wine glasses, champagne glasses (not a flute, still a glass, so maybe not for champagne), etc. etc. etc. For a while I was annoyed, because we specifically said we did not want these things and she sent them on a U-Haul anyway.

Now I wonder if I can host enough dinner parties with so many friends, memories, and great food, that over time all of the pieces break and chip and crack to the point that there's nothing left. Wouldn't that be romantic. 

January 

  • Drinks: water, Juggernaut red, and cranberry ginger beer mocktail
  • Main: herb chicken with creamy tomato sauce, zucchini couscous, and caesar salad
  • Dessert: small vanilla ice-creams with ginger crisps
  • Activity: Vision boarding (need base paper, magazines, vision board cut-outs, scissors, glue, markers, washi-tape)
March (planning phase)
  • Drinks: water, Guinness beer, and lemonade ginger beer mocktail
  • Main: cottage pie and broccolini or greens salad
  • Dessert: chocolate Guinness cake with cream cheese icing
  • Activity: board game Clue

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

misconception of failure

So I am talking to a friend the other day who is in quite a difficult spot right now. Her family is falling apart, abusive to her, publically humiliates her, and generally makes her life miserable. She is a new Christian. They are not. You can see the Spirit working in her as she has such a passion for showing them the life she has come to know. But it never seems to make a difference and at the end of the day she is discouraged. "...maybe I should have said something different..." "...maybe I provoked it..." "...it is so hard to be a change when I am right back in the situation where everything was so awful..." "...I feel like such a failure..." These are the things she says to me. And I relate and sympathize with all of them. However, last time we were talking about this, the Holy Spirit put into words what I have been trying to learn for so very long. When I think that I am a failure and that the Lord can't use my fumblings, I ...
Read more

tidying

I want to have a space where I fit comfortably, both body and mind. I do not feel that I have ever experienced any significant level of comfort from my environment. Of course, like most people, I do own a couple of items that always make me feel better in a 'security blanket' manner. However, it is always a struggle to find them in the midst of the crowded atmosphere that has always been my house. Unnecessary stressors significantly outnumber the happy items. Maybe this is due to the lack of cleanliness and/or the excess items that surround me, and the people I have lived with, but regardless as to why, I never thought my house could be a source of pleasure, comfort, and energy. But maybe it can. I want to have a space where I fit comfortably, both in body and mind. For the first time, I have my own place, for Husband and me (yay us!!). Perhaps we can make our house a happy place. I want our belongings to be important and to fit comfortably within our home. No more forcing....
Read more

yourself and others

My little sister has always seemed older than her years. Life is very simple to her and even the most complex of situations are black and white -- and she knows she's right. Though usually her insite lacks a comprehensive understanding of circumstances, sometimes her causal comments are worthy of considerable thought. A particularly provoking comment arose while she listened to me stress about staying in contact with relatives and friends. There were phone calls I hadn't returned, emails to which I hadn't replied, and 'thank you' cards that I hadn't mailed. She speaks to me in the fashion of a old sage who is slightly dumbfounded by the young ones lack of understanding. "Sissy...there is always someone else to call." She wasn't referring to my endless list of relatives and friends that were deserving of my attention. She was referring to my relatives and friends -- that they were the 'someone else' who could call me. Her wo...
Read more