...about entertaining

i've never really been one to invite people over to my house much. even as a kid i was happier going over to other people's houses. they had stuff that i didn't have. i didn't have to share my toys or have them broken. i didn't have to worry that my mom or dad or brothers would embarrass me. i could decide when i was done and go home, not wait for the other person to decide. that all kind of carried over into adulthood. we would have a party or two on a special occasions, but beyond that, we only really had family over for dinner or perhaps a really close friend that felt like family. we didn't have to worry too much that our house wasn't amazingly decorated (or all that tidy) and there was no concern over impressing them...what could they do, they were tied to us by blood, after all.

now that we are on this little island in the middle of the ocean and we don't have family around, we've decided to branch out a little in the realm of entertaining. for the last two weeks in a row we have invited friends over. our boys are thrilled. last week we invited a family, also originally from ontario, who have two little girls about the ages of our boys. by the end of the evening we had seen puppet shows, fashion shows, jello tricks, dances and songs, there were toys in every room of our house, bathrooms included, and a whole lot of empty wine bottles adorning the kitchen counter. we had such a good time. this weekend, we had a couple and their tiny baby over for dinner. they just moved here from atlanta three weeks ago and are just trying to get settled. again, we had a lovely evening. our littlest son performed his way through the evening with his crazy faces and funny dances while our oldest son spent the first half of the evening running his "restaurant", taking food and drink orders, and the second half of the evening sharing little known facts about animals. our tiny, three-month old guest was wearing pajamas with animals all over them, so our little professor had to find the toy versions of each one of them and give his informative lectures about each animal.

our house still isn't amazingly decorated (or all that tidy) and we don't have all that many "impressive" menu items. we do have fun, though. we've discovered that entertaining isn't really about all of those trappings anyway. it is about enjoying the company of friends. we're already thinking about who we can invite to our house next saturday evening.