It's good to entertain every once in awhile if for no other reason than you clean the house. I mean really clean the house. That's usually what it takes for us to give it more than the old once over. I can't stand the thought of someone judging me on the basis of a dirty house. I am after all, a janitor. I don't mind the creaky floor or the doors that need special instructions to open and close them. I can explain away all the in progress projects begun and tossed aside with equal earnestness.
I do feel though, no matter how poor or wealth, young or old, you can always have a clean house. I don't mean an uncluttered show-home, just not one that would make all sorts of weird swirly colors if one were to look at it with, say, a black light.
With that being said, cleaning the house is a huge pain in the ass. You can't possibly guess where all the dust is going to collect. You also get a closer look at some of the nooks and crannies of the place and realize that you have more work to do than you thought... Never a good feeling going in to a weekend sporting weather that offers no excuse not to work around the house.
We tend to entertain in fits and starts and then not again for awhile. Last party we went to, we had friends coming over for the weekend on the same night. So we enjoyed the dinner party with one set of friends and then a night cap with the other. It was a long, late night. Enjoyable, but late.
This time, we are the ones hosting the dinner party. It will be a smaller, more intimate group so we are going more formal than normal food-wise. We will stick with Bud Light and $5.00 bottles of wine, but the food will be more uppity. Immediately following this dinner, Em's parents will be arriving. So we will have the afterglow, (read a sink full of dishes, furniture in all the wrong places, etc.) and the joy (burden) of entertaining.
It is now cold out and a little snow is falling. It will be nice to have friends over and enjoy the warmth of the fire and the folk and the friendship while the world outside keeps turning and in the interval, before the festivities begin, I can enjoy the house being as clean as it has been in months.
Post Script
All went well. We had a lovely time as per usual. Of course it took until well into the next morning before all the dishes were done and the house was back in order, but it was worth every bite! Thanks to my lovely wife, Emily for her culinary expertise and our awesome friends who were warmer and more inviting than the very fire on the hearth, more fun that the wine and are always, always welcome.
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