A bring and share supper

Last night we had friends over for a bring and share supper, everyone had to bring a plate of food and whatever they would like to drink.

A visit from friends inevitably means that I have to actually clean my house properly. It's funny but I always see the house in a different light when I know visitors are imminent and when the sun is out. For example I saw the finger and hand prints all over the conservatory windows, the greasy grime on the front of the oven and the green tarnish that covered the white plastic garden furniture.Fortunately, I am not a complete slob and tend to do the usual cleaning such as hoovering and cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom on a regular basis, but I am not so good at the other stuff, there is always something else to do, like bake a cake. So yesterday after I'd done the fun stuff making fruit jelly, summer pudding and marinating my ribs I started the cleaning jobs and I have to say that today my windows are shiny and clear, the oven is spotless and the garden furniture looks inviting. Hopefully that is what our guest saw last night.

People arrived from 7.30pm and I was handed dish after dish of delicious food, (lasagne, salads, potato dishes, cheese, coronation chicken of course and lush bread from the market) bottle after bottle of fizz, white wine, beer, gin and so on and the flowers so many flowers just because Hubbie and I were hosting. The kitchen was full of people saying hi and hugs and kisses were abundant, it's been a while since we were all together. As the weather had been so lovely we had aperitifs and nibbles in the garden, child 1 was our waitress and a fine job she did. Once the hot food had been heated and the rice to go with the Thai green chicken had been cooked we all came in to eat and chat. The sun went down, the Mexican lights turned on and dessert brought out, more eating, chatting and laughing until it was time for our guests to head home starting in dribs and drabs depending on the babysitting 
arrangements, with the final two leaving once all the beer had been drunk.  An hour later after clearing up we headed to bed.

This morning, child 3 awoke a little later  than usual (7.30am) due to her nearly midnight bedtime once I unloaded the dishwasher and hung the table cloths on the line you wouldn't know that anything had happened except that we chatted over breakfast about how lovely it was to see everyone and catch up on what is happening in our lives. The house is full of summery flowers, the fridge full of leftovers and us we are filled with new memories of a fab evening spent in the good company of very good friends who will/want to  join and support us on our adventure.