Tips on hosting a dinner party

I am not trying to kid myself that I am a wunderkind of the hostessing world. But now that I have a big-time family dinner under my belt I have decided to note a few lessons learned for future reference.

• Start with an empty dishwasher and a mostly empty trash can. Your post-party self will love you.

• Cloth napkins are like haircuts, they only look that good when you first get them...but bless your heart for trying to make it look that good again. I think ironing cloth napkins is my least favorite pre-party task, perhaps because my iron is horrible. I honestly think that waving a curling iron above the napkins would be as effective as my iron.

• Delegate. Everyone gathers in the kitchen anyway, so dole out the tasks to get the grub on the table and the party started.

• Make a rough schedule in advance. Note what needs to be done and at what time so everything gets on the table (ahem - don't forget the rolls!) For extra credit, think through all the items that need stove/oven time and pencil in that rotation...teacher's pet.
  
  
• Check...and double check you have your ingredients. We thought we had everything on hand, but come Thanksgiving morning none of that crappy canned cranberry jelly was to be found in the house (if you can't tell, I'm not a fan, but Daniel is). I call around St. Louis and no groceries stores were open. Luckily, in a little hamlet 2 hours away a store was open until noon Thanksgiving Day - so my parents picked the jelly up on their way to St. Louis...disaster averted.
  

• Do not set the table the night before if you have cats. You may remember in my previous post that I set the table the night before Thanksgiving to reduce my day-of burden. Later than night I had visions of cats bringing down all the glassware, nibbling my centerpieces and vomiting them all over the carpet...so I pulled up all the settings and waited until Thanksgiving day to really set the table. Better safe than sorry, that's my motto.