Comfort Zone Challenge - Day 19

Over the last 19 years, my little nomad family and I, have moved around a lot, never staying too long in one place.  Finding ourselves in a new neighborhood, a new town, and in new schools so often, has meant a lot of effort getting to know new people.  In this effort to make friends, and  to settle and serve in our new community, we have invited an uncounted number of people to our home for dinner.

A good majority of the time, these dinners haven't gone very smoothly.  I've learned to be very uncomfortable with inviting people over for dinner.

Let me paint the scene for you, of an average dinner with guests, at the Parnell home.

Never learning from past mistakes, I'm always a little overambitious.  Wanting to impress, I often plan a complicated menu, which includes hours of prep, and many opportunities for something to go wrong.  The rolls that turned out perfectly when friends weren't coming for dinner, never seem to rise.  The dessert I've made dozens of times, inexplicably turns out green instead of yellow, and tastes horrible.  The homemade hot chocolate boils over the pot, causing a frantic clean up five minutes before our guests arrive.  Often the food just isn't finished in time, causing a long stretch of awkward small talk and apologetic excuses while we wait for dinner to be ready. 

As is this isn't bad enough, the food isn't usually our only issue.  My adorable, well-behaved children, forget all social graces as soon as our friends arrive, and almost always have major melt downs over who gets to use the fancy fork, or who gets to sit next to mom, or just sit quietly in their chair and refuse to talk at all. 

With all of these less than successful dinner parties haunting my past, I've been reluctant to try again.  Unwilling to be held captive by my comfort zone any longer, last Saturday we gave it another go. 

The first step in planning for this dinner was to learn from the past, and not let history repeat itself.  That meant, keeping it simple.  No more elaborate three course meals, expensive grocery list, and frazzled host.  Instead, we opted for the most chill, most simple meal we could think of: pancakes, (homemade, whole wheat, of course.  I'm not totally uncivilized.), bacon, and watermelon. 

Our guest arrived, and while things weren't perfect, (We forgot to heat up the skillet in time, and the pancakes weren't ready yet), it wasn't awkward or stressful.  I made an apology that the food wasn't ready, but instead of being embarrassed and beating myself up for not pulling things off perfectly, we started with the fruit and bacon, and talked and got to know each other better, while we waited for the pancakes.  The pancakes turned out  great, the conversation was easy and entertaining, with much talk on whether Nutella or Maple Syrup, (or the combination of the two), was superior.

In the end, our guests left well fed and happy, and I chalked this one up as a success.  Finally.


Today's a new day, let's make it purposeful!
Kara