Visiting friends

I had the great good fortune to have all my girlfriends over for dinner on Wednesday night.

I have six friends who were Girl Scout leaders at the same time I was back in the 90's.   Now that all our girls are grown (and some are married -and some have made us grandmothers!!)  we were worried that we wouldn't see each other anymore, and that we'd lose touch.

So we started having dinner out once a month.  And we've been doing it for at least 7 or 8 years.  We love getting together and talking about our lives - our families, our jobs, our vacations and adventures.  Sometimes there are only 3 of us there, sometimes all 7 - but we always have a great time.

This month, I offered to have everyone come to my house.   Only one friend had seen the inside of it, and I thought it would be fun to be "the hostess". 

And it was soooo much fun!   At first, they'd talked about everyone bringing something.   But I sent them an email asking if they'd allow me to cook and serve them a meal.   And they agreed.

It was the first time in ten years I've been able to have a real "dinner party".   When we were living in the condo and I had people over, we had to have pizza or something similar because I didn't have room at the table for a lot of people.

This time, I took my good dishes out of storage, set a pretty table, cleaned the house, lit some candles and created an inviting ambience.

And we had a wonderful time.   I'm thinking we might have started a new trend.   We so enjoyed being able to relax, and my guests were able to stay as long as they wanted.   In a restaurant, you're limited.  So next month Sue is going to have a Christmas dinner at her house - and maybe we'll continue visiting each other's homes instead of going to restaurants.

I loved being the hostess and can't wait to do it again.