31 Days of Hospitality: Day 5 - Hospitality vs. Entertain


Entertain means to invite people to your home for a party, visit or meal.  Pretty much the same as the definition of hospitality, right?  Maybe that's what makes the thought of hospitality so daunting.  Entertain sounds so elaborate, big, expensive. 

Entertaining in your home is such a nice way to show people you care.  When we moved to Arizona and started making friends I noticed that people just don't entertain at home here.  You meet people at restaurants, even for parties.  We came from a small, rural town in the south where opening up your home was the norm and I guess I just figured it was like that everywhere.  I was a Pampered Chef consultant back in those days and continued to do that when we moved to AZ.  It was here where I first encountered the hospitality roadblocks: my house is too small, too old, etc.  At first I thought it was a nice way for someone to say that they didn't want to do a show.  But it happened so often that I realized that might not be the case & they really believed that.  When I stopped selling PC after LM was born and we joined the MOMS club and started getting involved in playgroups I realized that only a few people wanted to do playgroups at their home.  The others had the sames reasons: house to small, too old, no pool (that's a big one here in the summer).  Since it's a little hot to take small people to the park in the summer, playgroups ended up being at the same people's homes all the time.  And while I love to entertain and my home is always open, that gets old after a while.  As the years have gone by we've made new friends and luckily alot of them enjoy opening up their homes as well.  I always find it more relaxing to enjoy dinner at home with friends and have time to chat afterwards and not feel like I am being rushed out of a restaurant.

Just because you are entertaining at your home doesn't mean you have to do all the work.  Sometimes it's nice to provide the entire meal but so often potluck is the way to go.  Maybe set up a theme to direct people to certain items: Mexican, Italian. Be creative and make it fun.

Remember that while entertain sounds so elaborate it's just the same as hospitality.  So hopefully that will make it less intimidating to open up our homes a bit more often....

Comments

Telly C. said…
I totally agree, I love when my husband and I are able to meet up for a gathering at a friend or family member's home. It's more of a genuine and relaxed type of quality time rather than being out in public (although we enjoy going out as well). Potlucks are great!
October 5, 2011 at 4:15 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Favorite Things....

Image
Join Melissa @ 320 Sycamore for her My Favorite Things party. Here are my favorite things: David Cook. The CD. Still lovin' it. Listen to it a lot. It's good. Very good. Philosophy Lip Gloss. I have the melon daiquiri flavor and love it. It's shiny AND stays on. Tastes good, too. About $12. Electric Pepper Mill. How did I live without this? Really. You can find one like this at Crate & Barrel for about $40 or so. Peets Coffee . I talk about Starbucks a lot because we don't have a Peets here. It's really the best in my opinion. Luckily you can find it in the grocery store for about $14/lb -or less when it's on sale. You know that's when I buy it! :) Measuring cups. I have these from Williams-Sonoma. I love them. I think it's my favorite thing in my kitchen. At least one of them. And one I use almost daily. It took a while for me to break down and buy them but I have to admit that it's the best $30 I have ever spent. When Little Miss moves us...
Read more

Monday, Monday...

Image
Monday's are usually my favorite days. Everyone is back to work and school and I have the morning to gather my thoughts and eat a leisurely breakfast before starting my day. My friend, E, who I carpool with has her husband take the kids to school since he is off on Mondays. Today, however, has been a bit odd. We had a new dishwasher delivered this morning and my husband uninstalled the old one last night. This morning I wake up to a leak in one of the dishwasher hoses - thankfully just a slow leak but still an inconvenience. My husband had to come home and semi-install the new dishwasher to stop the leak. I have been washing the dishes in the wet bar sink instead of the kitchen sink since something is turned off there and the hubby said not to use it until the new dishwasher is totally installed. I am thankful to have a wet bar sink and not have to resort to washing the dishes in the bathroom - something I am sure we've all had to do at one time. I have some things in t...
Read more

Changes...

Image
I posted some photos of my living room a while back. I realized how blah and boring it looks. I appreciate the suggestions I was given. One of them was 'paint'. We had the walls painted a couple years ago so I really didn't want to do it again just yet so I had to figure what else I could do to get some color in there. I thought about painting a canvas red to match the chair ( below). After talking to my sister she suggested dipping cool whip containers in paint to make the circles and an idea was born. I bought the 3 canvases (20" X 20") at Michaels at 50% off - the three cost $21. I got a quart of paint at Lowe's ($12 - Martha Stewart's Cranberry something or the other). The blue paint was a sample size of Olympic that someone didn't buy -$1. Cool whip container and little round container I had in the kitchen - free. Fleur de lis printed off computer, traced on canvas and painted - free. So for $34 I got this new look. Very David Bro...
Read more