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Entertaining | Pad Patter 2.19.16

jenevang

jenevang

Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs
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Do you love to entertain? Or do you pull your hair out before folks come over? Do you stress or are you laid back?

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I am in the throes of putting together a party for 150 people tonight and have been cleaning/cooking/preparing for it for a week. And I HATE IT. Can I be honest? I just feel like it's a big fat waste of my time... and money.

Don't get me wrong. I love to be with people and to get together with them, but I much prefer to have folks over casually and throw things together last minute. I do NOT have a party board on Pinterest and it makes me itchy to look out my window at my deck (where we will be) and see how Pinterest Unworthy it looks.

It is not my strength. And I admit it. And I just can't muster the energy to get too worked up about it. To make matters worse, my mom is the consummate hostess and literally GASPED when I told her about this last week and mentioned I hadn't started thinking about it at that time.

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She actually called me yesterday to give me moral support. I was in Sam's picking up food. :giggle

OK... back to work... it'll all be over soon!

200_d.webp


Lemme hear your Party Thoughts!
 
oh my gosh I love having my house filled with people, but.............................................................................................................
I don't decorate or deep clean ('cept bathrooms before they come)
I am so cheap, that it makes NO sense to me? and food is the most important in my eyes! hahah

We have our whole church over on the Friday night (about 80 to 100 peeps show up) after revivals (usually every 6 weeks or so) and we host a block party for our neighborhood, and the church comes too on the 4th, cause you can see the fireworks really good from our yard!

I got a couple recipes:
grilled chicken (soaked in Claude's overnight), rice, coleslaw, baked beans
shredded brisket (but it goes fast with single guys), rolls and mac/cheese, salads(bought in bags from Sam's)
winter time I do chili, with rice, lots of cheese
always have 3 thermos' jugs for water, sweet(not sugar) tea, and fruit punch
2 big push thermos' that I keep full of coffee (that is my main job that evening, keeping that full!)
church peeps love their coffee!
I don't make any desserts, when people say, what can I bring?
Bring a dessert of your choice! There is ALWAYS plenty of sweets and I just set up a table just for them! Usually where the kids all go! bhahha
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and when I am running short of time, I buy 300 pc of fried chicken from local grocery!
we set it up for most important...
two lines of people down the food tables! (this is a must)
it goes until 2am, and we have a fire outside and the laughter and joy it brings into my home makes me so darn happy!

after everyone leaves...my family and I pick up the easy stuff. Put away any left overs that will be worth saving, and sit and enjoy the peace.
to me the hardest is the next day....finding drinks in places I would never put them! hahah..cleaning up..but it goes fast, and all the bigs get energy drinks, and the LIttles get their very own soda! We work together and always, always go out for lunch that day!

ps. I used to so worry that people wouldn't get enough, and my wise hubby said,
"well good thing Denny's is 24 hours!"
no one leaves starving that I am for sure!
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I love to entertain, but I'd be a lot happier if I could learn to let go of the control and let people help/bring food ...
 
I'm a close friend entertainer, lol! A few apps, close friends, causal and relaxing! I made a few apps, told one friend to bring an app too, another to bring dessert, and another to bring tortilla chips. I made a guac, some puff pastires with cheese and carmelized onions, and had hummus and carrots. We were all set. If we are still hungry, I keep a few extra apps ready to go on hand (already bake ready from a nearby market). If we are extra hungry, we can order sushi! :P

I don't think I could handle 150 people planning party. :imokKudos to you, Jen!!! :woohoo
I'd call in the professionals for that - or go to a restaurant/location!
 
150 people!!!! :notworthy:notworthy I'm in awe!! I would be a complete basket case and absolutely hate it. If we entertain, its usually at our cottage where its very casual and there's no more than about 15 people. I know I'll be doing more entertaining at home this summer as our oldest daughter gets married in September, so there will probably be at least one shower, both families get together, possible stag and doe barbecue, etc. I'm burying my head in the sand until closer to the time!!! :lalala
 
Just so you guys know... I'm exhausted and am ready to collapse... and it's still 3 hours until "party" time, hehe. My DH actually volunteered to let me hire someone to clean but stupid me didn't want to spend the $$... #regretthatdecision #atleastidonthavetoworkouttoday #bonus
 
I don't think we could even fit 10 in our apartment. My 30th birthday was awesome though. It was on Cinco de Mayo, there was a keg, a pinata, a giant cake, in a park on a beautiful day. . It was so much fun. I love theme parties. I used to have big parties for the kids, but 8yo isn't into it anymore.
Good luck with everything. Just breathe.
 
OMG. I can't imagine having that many people over. The only time we had that many people was when we got married. :giggle

I would love to have a bunch of little dinner parties and entertain friends, but we don't have any. LOL.

I'm a horrible procrastinator. I love coming up with party themes, recipe ideas, and decorations months and months in advance, and then I wait until the day before to do all of the prep, cleaning, cooking, etc. And I'm generally pretty grouchy the day of because no one ever helps to clean or do anything unless I start barking out commands. I'd love to be a party planner, but wouldn't want to have to do the actual work. Hahahaha.

I can relate to your whole Pinterest comparison thing though. For Kennedy's 3rd b-day, I was bound and determined to have a massively awesome party with everything so perfect it would be featured on Kara's party website. Of course my pictures never really turned out well, and even though everything was super cute and fun, I didn't feel like I was worthy of submitting my stuff. Comparison is terrible.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
 
I love having people over...but I like entertaining smaller groups. And I don't really go crazy with pinteresty type decor and food....unless I'm hosting a baby shower (which is my fave party to host), then I go crazy. But we often host game night, dinners, etc...at a smaller more relaxed scale. A lot of times it's last minute too. Hey, come over, have dinner, the kids can play outside, we'll have a bonfire, etc...
 
Your party will be a blast! As long as there's enough food, you'll be fine. ;)

I have had a whopping 8 people total in my house so far for a little dinner and games get together. It was on NYE (but it wasn't a crazy party, it was just the date that worked), and that 8 total includes the 4 of us. :) And cuz we've got preschoolers, the party was over by 8! :) #mykindofparty But I'm a pretty low-key partier so anything at my house is low-key. When we meet more people lol, we'll have a few more families over at one time.
 
I like the idea but have never really had people over. And now I feel like I wouldn't be able to do it right - I often feel socially inept. I don't think I could successfully entertain people.
 
150 people would personally cause a major breakdown...

We had about 60 kids over for an 18th - never again (18 is the legal drinking age in australia so a few wanted to test test that out - and the neighbors!).

I can do about 20 comfortably, although nest year is my 50th (!!!!) and I would like a largish party for that.

Good luck - hope it went well xx
 
I'm with you Jen. I really don't care for big noises crowds and mess. That said it has fallen to me all of my married life to host all holidays and special occasions. My mother in law is a bit strange ( another story) and my hubby is the oldest son a Greek family...
In the beginning it wasn't so bad, but as the family grew and everyone started having kids, then the kids always invited their friends, - and my father in law insisted on a sit down dinner. No buffet for us!

Maybe the worst was that I was so busy I didn't enjoy myself, and then spending the entire day after loading the dishwasher five or six times.

After I got sick we had to stop, and you know what, not one other relative has picked up the ball. - so now I say the heck with it. We are going to a restaurant after church for Greek Easter.
 
Maybe @jenevang is still sleeping it off? :rofl

I'm not an entertainer. I'd rather have 8-10 people over for snacks and games. We hosted Easter for about 40 people, and that was too much for me. Although, that might have been because my mother in law wanted it to be perfect, and that ended up being a horrible weekend and super busy for me. :think
 
HA... I'm actually at work today. And not all too happy about it :giggle

The event was a success and I have left over food out the whazoo. So yay for that, boo for that, hehe.

The weather behaved and everything was perfect. The only downside was that I managed to get sick. I feel TERRIBLE today with sinus crud. I have been more sick this year than ever before in my life and I'm really sad about it. Maybe I'm getting old.
 
jenevang said:
HA... I'm actually at work today. And not all too happy about it :giggle

The event was a success and I have left over food out the whazoo. So yay for that, boo for that, hehe.

The weather behaved and everything was perfect. The only downside was that I managed to get sick. I feel TERRIBLE today with sinus crud. I have been more sick this year than ever before in my life and I'm really sad about it. Maybe I'm getting old.
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yup...that plays a major part on coping, I can totally asure :giggle
but you aren't old enough!!!

glad to hear all went well...bummer you have to work the day after :( I couldn't!!!

We used to entertain A LOT.
When we were living in Brazil or had Sarita's birthday parties in Argentina, I would get up to 150 people, but would always have help...in Buenos Aires we would hire a party place so the only thing we needed doing was turn up with the cake, my mum would deal with the food, the place provided drinks.
In Brazil Sarita's 4th birthday had over 150 people but I had so much help from her God Parents, neighbors, I paid a lady for the cake as I didn't trust myself with a 1590 people cake, we even had barbecue going...
Now..in London?
couldn't do so many people, we used to LOVE having people over, we had up to 15 or 20 people here at one time...but with time, my body can't take it less, the p[ast few years I haven't been able to do much...but we had friends a couple of weeks ago and it went well, of course Sarita and Nadia helped (her best friend)
I usually do relaxed... food that is a pleasure to cook and don't stress about much..... but would love to have home help as I do like receiving people....
 
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