The last of your guests have finally gone home - an hour after the party ended! The dishes and glasses are piled in the sink, that is the ones that aren't still sitting around on your tables. It will take at least two hours to get things cleaned up and back to normal, and it's 1:00 a.m. As nice as the evening has been, you're exhausted and ready to swear off ever entertaining again. But before you do that, consider these top reasons why you want to consider entertaining in the future.
Let's admit the truth. As busy as we all are, it's hard to find the motivation to de-clutter and clean our homes unless we know guests are coming over. Your house hardly ever looks as good as it does when guests are ringing your doorbell.
As you plan the food quantities for your party, plan on making a bit extra. This way you'll reward yourself for a job well-done when you eat the leftovers during the days following the party.
First, in preparing to entertain, it helps to clean out the old, unidentified containers from your refrigerator to make room for your party food. But another way entertaining helps to clean out the pantry is to use up food you were saving for a special occasion. Remember that canned ham you purchased on sale over the holidays? Just what are you saving it for? Plan a party and use it up!
With everyone talking about diets lately, you almost need an excuse not to feel guilty about being bad once in a while. When you entertain, no one can blame you for buying a few goodies to serve to your guests, can they?
Kids are a novelty for those who don't have any currently in their home. So for grandparents, younger aunts and uncles, or newly married friends, it may be (dare I say?) a treat to play with your kids while you get the dinner ready. Worth the price, isn't it?
Any foodie worth her salt always has a small pile of recipes that she's just waiting to test out. But if the recipe serves six, and you're a household of four including two kids, you need an appreciative audience to prepare a special dish.
You can't remember the last time you purchased a new CD. You listen to Classic Rock and Golden Oldies. And not that anything's wrong with that. But wouldn't it be fun to catch up with the latest musical trends from the past few decades?
You can't expect to develop a reputation as a great party hostess if you don't practice party planning once in a while, do you? Each time you host a party, you get to practice choosing recipes, timing the food, estimating food quantities, planning your decorations and all the rest. And presumably you get better at it each time you do it.
The baby pictures have all been pasted and journalled, and the kids aren't doing anything that interesting these days. It's time to make your own fun for photos to paste into the scrapbook.
It's not nearly as much fun to sing Happy Birthday to yourself as it it to be sung to by family and friends. And who else can really appreciate where you've come from than those who knew you when? So, of course you want to invite your closest family and friends to share your special events with you.
