PARTY PLANS

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Wishful Bliss

Photo Found Here

As we are approaching my favorite holiday, Halloween, I am planning for my family’s perfect costumes to go to my niece’s 1^st mega costume party, I am reminded of Nancie J. Carmody’s pearl “I am thankful for the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.”

I’m pretty sure my first sentence ever uttered was “mom, where’s the party at??” I love parties but actually love hosting them more. Give me the slightest reason and I’ll whip up a cake and throw a party.  My obsession lies in gathering my favorite people, spoiling them, celebrating and fully ingesting the occasion.

A party, particularly a birthday party, is the ultimate toast to life.  A time to reflect and honor the past, present and future of the birthday boy or girl. We get so bogged down in “having” to go to party after party and families often hit 3 or more kids parties in a weekend, yet something magical happens when you put on the birthday hat.

Mrs. Party has recounted that historically, “Having a party was a way to ward off the evil spirits, since one is surrounded by family and friends in a celebration of life. A celebration or gathering became a protection from harm.”  Is this why we wack the guts out of a piñata?

Whether a girls day in, kid’s birthday or a blowout black tie affair, parties can be thrown on no budget, a shoestring makeshift budget or megawatt 24 Karat budget and there are a ton of resources to guide you how, including, the newly published book "Plan To Party" (we'll be chatting with the author's on this week's radio show).  

Yet no amount of money can replace maximizing every moment to connect with your fellow party goers and morsel the sweetness of the happy times. Always plan to celebrate. I love scoping out my friend’s family and friends and seeing who is their support system. It helps put a lot of the pieces of the puzzle into place!!

For example, at one of my friend’s wedding was the first time I ever experienced being shoved off of the buffet line. I was stunned. I’m usually the first one in there and doing the shoving. Not with her familia!!  It was like the Great Wall of China formed with her relatives around the food tables. I literally was left picking at the scraps when they cleared.  I still haven’t fully recovered from this experience and know to never ever mess with that crew!!

My husband is notoriously a ghost during cocktail parties, he usually ditches me to stake out the food. After 9 years, I’m used to it and know I can usually find him being perched by the kitchen so he can get first dibs on the pass arounds.  

I love throwing a good party, starting with my infamous New Year’s Eve parties in high school, which my parents always seemed to come home just a tad too early before all the evidence was cleared. Those got me into some pretty fine messes and making some amendments to my resolutions.

My mom and I were recently reminiscing about those parties and the parties of the “Cousins Club”. This was a semi annual gathering of ALL my family members at one of the grandparent’s houses. I remember packing into my grandmother’s basement and her serving up her famous army pot full of spaghetti and meatballs, we were all elbow to elbow with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents as far as the eye could see.

My mom and my cousin were talking about recreating the “Cousins Club” for the next generation. We already do have regular family gatherings during the holidays and my dad’s famous annual barbeque, which are a blast, but now the "Cousins Club" is officially called to order again. Woohoo!

I’ll take parties and any of life’s infinite reasons to celebrate any day over the other side of the coin. Like my grandparent's used to say, "See you again, only for good times, God willing."

I think of Diane Keaton and Steve Martin at the end of "Father of The Bride", sitting in their house after the wedding of their daughter, knowing that they now have to clean up the mess in their home after having survived and hosted their daughter’s rite of passage into marriage as she’s off out starting her new life.

I love this pearl that my cousin-in-law Elizabeth Mascali writes in the "Plan to Party" book, "A well hosted party gives people a chance to slow down, reconnect, and create memories that add grace, beauty and humor into our lives. A good party never ends. The memories last a lifetime - and longer." 
 

A most beautiful mess indeed.

Check Out The Party Girls Elizabeth Mascali & Dawn Sandomeno
Party BluPrints
"Plan To Party" Book via Amazon (Mommas Pearls is an associate)
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Copyright © 2010 Cynthia Litman d/b/a Tigris Imprints. All Rights Reserved.