A Better Bag of Groceries

Take It Outside

Monday, May 17, 2010 at 11:34 AM

I love to entertain.  I really, really do.  In my opinion, entertaining is one of those things that you either love to do or hate to do.  And I just happen to love it.  I think I got the bug from my Grandma Wood.  She loved to throw parties, host holidays, and serve nice dinners.  She had a tiny little house, but a big wrap-around deck, and she somehow she managed to entertain large groups of people with ease.  Some of my fondest memories are of get-togethers at her house.

Like Grandma Wood, my house falls a little short when it comes to entertaining inside.  So this weekend, when my daughter asked for Spaghetti and Mama Melissa’s Meatballs  for her 5th Birthday Dinner, we took it outside. 

It was so much easier to seat 13 people out on the lawn instead of in our tiny dining room!

It felt sort of Godfather – like, eating pasta and drinking red wine on white tablecloths in the grass. 

And when the kids were done, we could just hose down the table and high chair!

My daughter loved her Spaghetti dinner.

Don’t you just love my apron, by the way?

It was a gift from my Mom for Mother’s Day.  It’s from Vera Bradley and it came with a matching recipe box!

But back to today’s blog topic, which is about entertaining outside.  My husband and I have a few tips:

1. Instead of pre-cleaning inside, focus on the outside.  Give the lawn a fresh cut and sweep the deck.  Remember, today your yard is your dining room.
2. Do what you can do to control the elements.  For us here in New England, at this time of the year, it’s all about the bugs.  We sprayed Yard Guard about an hour before guests arrived and had some Insect Repellent on hand.  The Yard Guard does an amazing job of keeping the bugs under control.  However, we once had a wine tasting on a 98 degree day in August (my sister’s bridal shower) where we had fans set up outside under a tent.  (I’m not kidding).
3. Be prepared for complainers.  While some people will love that they are sitting on your lawn with a glass of Chianti imagining that they are in Sicily, it will throw some people for a loop.  Have some sweatshirts and sweaters available and just give them another glass of wine.  That usually helps!
4. Be prepared to take it inside.  There are times when no amount of hoping or praying can keep the bad weather away.  When my husband graduated from Business School, I planned an elaborate party with rented tables, chairs and tents.  I even made the table cloths (this was pre-kids, after all).  Even though the date of the party was in late May, it rained sideways on the day of the party.  In fact, some parts of Massachusetts saw snow.  Needless to say, I soon had 35 people in our smallish-house.  We survived.

As long-time A Better Bag of Groceries  readers know, I am a huge devotee of Robin Abrahams,  the author of the Miss Conduct column in the Boston Globe.  In her book, Miss Conduct’s Mind Over Manners, she writes about entertaining, “even if your home and accoutrements don’t measure up to those of others.”  Robin, too, has a less-than-desirable setup for entertaining in her Cambridge apartment.  And as she writes on page 65 of Mind Over Manners, “for a while I let that intimidate and shame me out of entertaining, and our social obligations started to pile up like dirty dishes.  Then one magical day it hit me that our friends like us, and their enjoyment of our company isn’t mitigated by the presence of plastic forks.”  So, make the most of what you do have, and throw that party.  Everyone will have a good time.

And in the end, maybe she’ll remember that she made her 5th birthday wish out on the green grass with a beautiful breeze blowing in her hair…

Posted by: Melissa 7 comments

Posted in: Entertaining

Tags: entertaining outside