Hostess with the mostest

I love entertaining. Most people that know me already know this little factoid. I love having parties, planning parties, hosting overnight guests, hosting casual get-togethers, etc, etc, etc. Whatever it is, if it involves planning, at least one person (hosting animals doesn't count - it's probably not the same, but since I haven't done that, I'll withhold my critique), and the opportunity to spread the love, then count me in.

Our last apartment was definitely not conducive to hosting. I still did it a few times, but certainly not as often as I really wished I could.

We had some friends over for dinner a couple of times. Both times I looked my pride in the eye, kicked it out the door and invited our friends to pull up a chair to our...er, t.v. trays. They were good sports and sat right down. That's the great thing about great friends! They can overlook the small things like having no dinner table at which to eat our dinner.

And my brother came to stay with us for a week. We set him up in our cozy and not the least private......living room. On a comfy......air mattress. Where he could place his bags......in the middle of the "dining room." (That's what it was supposed to be, but it was really more of an extended living room in our case.) He was woken up each morning to the smell of fresh......poo. Maia poo, lest you think we are barbarians. Maia was still a small puppy and had not yet been fully potty trained so she, uh, went in her crate each morning. Looking back, I feel kind of bad for Chace. I'll have to make that up to him one day, I suppose. But maybe not. I mean brothers are brothers for a reason. They just deal with stuff like that because they love their sisters. Right? (tap, tap...is this thing on??)

Anyway, now that we've moved out of that good-for-nothing hosting apartment, we've moved to a luxurious two-bedroom, two-bath split-level town home. Oh the joy! Problem is, I moved into this place 2,000 miles away from the friends and family that I would invite to any party or gathering I may decide to host! Oh the irony...

But it's ok. I'll make friends. One day. In the mean time, we are welcoming our first house guests in two weeks! My parents and my brother are coming to stay with us and I couldn't be more excited. Granted, it is still a little rustic (read: no bed, one bathroom to share (the second bathroom doesn't have a shower), and minimal furniture) but hey! a hostess wouldn't be the hostess with the mostest without a little challenge to really make her talents shine right??

I'm going to make those air mattresses be the homiest, coziest, most lovely air mattresses a person could ask for and that bathroom will work. I mean we're family. We've had to share a bathroom before. It'll work. It will. (I'm still in the panicky, "is this going to work", trying-to-convince-myself stage of the hostess with the mostest challenge... but if you've ever seen reality t.v. you know, it always seems to work out in the end. Somehow, against all odds. And that will be the case here too. It will.)