dinner party: month 3

We missed our monthly dinner party in June, mostly because I was out for a full week with a killer migraine and the then Hubbs strained his back at work. That meant we had to go all out for JULY.

So this 4th of July the Hubbs and I hatched a plan. It centered around a Pork Butt. Have I mentioned my hubby has a meat smoker? Yes, and it's his first love...before me and the children. He headed out on Saturday and bought a slab of meat and then we hatched our plan.

Plan: Show up to church on Sunday and ferret out those who don't have 4th of July plans for Monday. Then invite everyone over and throw a shindig for all of us.

This plan could have seemed entirely crazy because of the last-minute-ness of it all. But we pulled it off and it was the best 4th we have had in years!

We set up a pool and a slip-n-slide and invited all over at 2pm for water fun. Around 4pm when the meat had been fully smoked to perfection we started the eating. We provided the Pulled Pork, coleslaw, hot dogs and buns and potato salad. Each other family brought sides, salads, drinks and desserts and boy, did we EAT!

Kids played, men threw footballs and frisbees, women chatted about their top 5 celebrity crushes...it was perfection. I made a last-minute 4th soundtrack on my MP3 player and we set up speakers and busted out the Otter Pops and danced the day away.

Two brave souls even decided to stay until the fireworks at dusk and for a wicked game of Trivial Pursuit and chatting that lasted until 1:00 AM.  That's a lot of Ahern exposure for one day!  And I am so glad they stayed...we had such a wonderful night with them.

Seriously, it perfectly subscribed to my new line of thinking since reading The Reluctant Entertainer. I let go of the fact that our living room is oddly half painted, that two of our dining room chairs recently broke, that our guest bathroom has a white toilet seat on an almond colored toilet and that it was last minute. Stupid things that could have gotten in the way of a truly fun and fabulous day. 

In 10 years there is no way I would ever remember that, on this holiday, our Living Room was imperfect and that we realized too late we had no towels in the guest bathroom...but I will absolutely remember the time we spent with friends.