Operation Housewarming

Drew and I love to entertain. He is a bit more social more often than I am, but I love to be around family and friends too. Now that we have furniture in every room of the house and we've gotten some pictures on the walls, we figured it would be a great time for our housewarming party. It grew to a housewarming/engagement party once he proposed and it's still growing. I'm starting to get nervous.

Drew can make friends with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Once he's spoken with someone for five minutes, you can bet they're getting an invitation for drinks or to come over to the house. I really like that about Drew but since he's more social than I am, I sometimes tell him, 'Gah baby, stop talking to people!' He reminds me of my dad that way. My dad used to embarrass the crap out of us when we were younger because he would talk to everybody. When I was a teenager I was constantly mortified by my dad's outgoing nature. Of course, as a teenager I was constantly mortified by just about everything my parents did but whatever. I totally look forward to regularly mortifying my kids when I have them - it's a parental privilege.

Anyway, the upside of being so outgoing is that Drew knows a lot of people and has tons of business connections. Okay, but all those connections? All those people that he meets on random plane rides? AND our friends? He's invited all of them to our house!! I just checked the evite and there are currently 36 people who are absolutely coming and another 38 who have yet to respond! Granted, some of those 38 won't be able to come, like his parents and brother in New York. Drew still wanted to invite them so they wouldn't feel left out - he's so sweet like that.

But that's only a few! I know some of those on the list will be coming even if they haven't said yes which means expecting 50 people at the house is not unreasonable! Holy crap! Where will they all fit? I've never hosted a party with that many people before - we had our 4th of July party at the pool at the loft and I think there were only about 30 at that one! And that was outside in a giant pool! Exclamation point!

I'm concerned for Maya - she freaks out when there are four people in the house. I have no idea what she'll do with 50. When she gets nervous she eats grass, (no clue what that's about - something about it makes them vomit which settles their nervous stomachs. Poor thing.) so I'm wondering if we'll have to keep her in her crate the whole time. I know Drew won't want that - he loves showing her off. I guess we'll just have to play it by ear.

It will also be a good exercise for the wedding because we're wanting to do it in the backyard, (yes, planning is back on. More on that later) so we'll have a good idea of what 50 people in the backyard looks like.

What the heck will everyone eat??? I definitely want to do easy stuff - food you can eat with one hand while walking around. We've committed to providing margaritas and sangria because we figure that will be the easiest to whip up in large quantities. Ooooh, I just thought of a theme! What about tapas? We could have little nibblies everywhere!

Anyway, so the party is this Saturday the 22nd. My mom is coming to town the Thursday before (thank God!) to help out so wish me luck y'all! Operation Housewarming is in effect!

I'm such a dork.