Entertaining in order to get a clean house

Hey, it works for me. I planned and gave a holiday party, giving myself a full month to get ready. So I spent a month cleaning, purging, organizing, clearing, and wow is it nice to have my counters clear, finally! There is always more to do (the top of the filing cabinet, for one), but I am really glad I got SO much done. I even decorated!

I got to see Andrea, Liz, fabulous Val; Soosun and her crew; Anna H and her crew; "Aunties" Nancy and Chris; my other ex, Linda, and her sweetie, Mary; a fellow SMC, Lynette, and her handsome son Alexander; and my friend Allison and her daughter, the other mom having been called away to Youth Minister duty at her church.

I made these amazing hors d'oeuvres called Tiropetes (warning: opens a PDF) that I never make because I have the mental idea that they're hard and time-consuming. Not so much! G helped me finish making them, brushing the melted butter on the phyllo dough, cutting the strips, and then folding the triangles. I even ended up with an extra sheet of them that I froze!

Folks kindly didn't arrive till 5:20, which gave me just enough time to be ready and do hardly anything during the party but talk, eat, and drink. Allison brough 3 bottles of Prosecco, which I enjoyed quite a bit; one bottle is left in the fridge to be enjoyed with my sister. I had Swedish meatballs and "cream sauce" gravy from IKEA, Kraft mac & cheese, and cut-up Hebrew National hot dogs in BBQ sauce from TJs. Everything was a hit with folks, which was nice. Linda brought a dozen bottles of water, which were entirely consumed (that seems like a good thing).

I really had fun visiting with folks, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves, too. What a great way to celebrate a holiday.