There are a lot of good reasons to host a party; special occasions, gathering of friends and holiday celebrations. However there are also some bad reasons that just make the party “suck” for others.

Revenge – If you want to retaliate against someone, don’t host a party and invite everyone else, friends and co-workers, but not them just in spite. This “tit for tat” attitude just shows a lack of confidence. You may loose more friends and feel even worst.

Ego trip – Don’t let your vanity drive relationships, especially when entertaining for others. Hosting a party may give you the feeling of superiority and control, but this is NOT a good reason to invite friends over for dinner.

Mercy – Providing sympathy may be OK to give your children but it is not a good reason to gather people together for someone else. It seldom makes others feel better when you are showing how sorry you are for them. Misery loves company, a big downer for a gathering.

Quid pro quo – Just because someone threw you a party, doesn’t mean you need to return the favor. Bring people together because you want to, not because you feel you must.

Popularity by association – Don’t bring people together just to be in association with someone famous or prominent in the community. Popularity is seldom gained from a one time association at a party.

Here’s a great idea for a 50th wedding anniversary party, make it a family reunion. Not just gathering for a few hours, make it a long weekend. When our parents had their 50th anniversary, we came up with many ideas on how to best celebrate this big event, it’s 50 years people. We considered many different ideas including renting a banquet hall, catering meals, entertainment, decorations; you know, the works. But what was really important to the special couple was not the food, the decorations or any of the normal party stuff; it was family. So what better than to have the grandparents, their kids and all the grand children together, relaxing and having a good time?

The location was chosen based upon two things; first was being within a reasonable distance for most people and second finding a venue large enough accommodate 45 family members, yes a large family and this was just the grandparents and immediate family. We happened to choose the Nebraska State Park at Ft. Robinson, a beautiful location with lots of history. Ft. Robinson has some lodging that was former officer’s quarters that date from 1874 to 1909 that sleep 20 people each. Everyone was accommodated with two of these beautiful old buildings and a few kids on the floor with sleeping bags.

The meals were provided by the family, no catering necessary. Each sibling’s immediate family members were responsible for one meal; the cooking, serving and clean up. The majority of food was serviced buffet style with the actual cooking done a couple days before. Crock pots are great appliances that make serving large numbers of guests very convenient.

If you don’t have a nice state park with lodging facilities, consider some resort condos or local hotels with a banquet room. Where ever the location, listen to the anniversary couple and what they would like to do. Usually the 50th wedding anniversary is more about family then anything else.

Tips on Treating a Hangover

Tips to get ride of a hangover can be very useful most any time. However the Spring and Summer months are the times when people gather for picnics, the backyard barbeques and holiday celebrations. These gatherings provide an opportunity for you and your guests to drink a little too much alcohol which causes the dreaded “hangover”. Excess alcohol can cause dehydration and chemical imbalances in the body and a very miserable next day.

Tips to get rid of a hangover or at least to avoid or lessen the suffering associated with hangover headaches that often accompany these festivities, the National Headache Foundation (NHF) offers some advice.

Moderation – The best way of treating hangovers is to minimize the risk of getting a hangover in the first place. Drink less alcohol by sipping your drink and set your limit to just 2 or 3.

Red Wine – For how to lessen the wine hangover, drink more white wine and avoid red wine. Red wine contains naturally occurring congeners that help cause headaches.

Mixed Drinks – Mixed drinks that contain fruit or vegetable juices will be better then straight alcohol.

Fructose – Have some honey or tomato juice before and after your drinks. Honey and tomato juice contains fructose or sugar that helps your body metabolize alcohol and will minimize the hangover affects.

Fluids – Drink fluids rich in minerals and salts such as broth. Since alcohol causes dehydration, the broth will replace these fluids in your body. Also drink water or sports drinks in-between the alcohol drinks. Just get in the habit of having a glass of water between each drink containing alcohol.

Caffeine – Drinking coffee or another source of caffeine will help dilate blood vessels and help reduce the headache the next day.

Aspirin – Take aspirin or Ibuprofen to help reduce your headache.

Fatty Foods – Eat greasy foods before consuming alcohol to help coat your digestive system which will reduce the alcohol absorption. This is one case where non-healthy foods can be a benefit.

Recipe:

The NHF recommends a non-alcoholic beverage, the "Champagne Fooler”.

• 1 1/3 cups apple juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 12 ounces club soda

Chill glasses. Mix together apple juice and lemon juice, then add club soda. Stir gently to blend, pour and serve immediately. This recipe will make 4 servings.

So if you can’t control your drinking, at least you can now take steps to reduce the dreaded “hangover”.

Who’s going to pay?

This is a topic that has been discussed many times but it never has really been resolved, until now. I suggest you use one simple method anytime there is a group. Split the bill and move on.

This minimizes that perplexing time towards the end of a dinner party about how the check will get paid. This is often a dilemma that no one cares to think too much about or even talk about for fear someone will think you are cheap. So here you are with a group of people; maybe friends or maybe not. The bill is a big one and you should be paying around $19 or round it up to $20, with tax and tip included. However, someone picks up the check and informs everyone that the total bill with tip is $280 or $28 per person. So here we go again, you have to pay an extra $8 so someone else could have a couple drinks with their meal. This really sucks! Just pay the $28 and move on.

So you can either pay the $28 or just put in your $20 and hope someone else makes up the difference or complain. Most people will just pay the $28 and be done with it. You ask yourself quietly, why didn’t the person reviewing the check come up with a fairer way to divide up the bill? Just pay the $28 and move on.

Now if this is with a group of friends that meet for dinner somewhat regularly, usually this will even out; sometimes you pay too much and sometimes you get by with less then expected. But what if this is a birthday party that someone else organized and you only know about half the people? Again just suck-it-up and pay the damn $28, it’s expected, it’s a birthday party.

Or since you brought a gift and someone else organized this gathering, they should be paying for the whole dinner. Or why don’t the one’s that had the $30 meal pay extra? So many questions, so little time. Just pay the $28 and move on.

Now the other way to divide up the check would be to have each person review the check and pay what they believe they owe. Sounds fair enough. But then this takes time to have everyone decipher the check (which can be difficult at times) some people can’t add correctly, some people forget the tax and the whole contribution comes up short. Then what? Anyway this is so silly, so time consuming, so cheap! Just split the check and move on.

What’s your opinion? Want more on this topic?