Other People's Parties

image from here

Last night I hosted my (what has now become) traditional advent party chez moi. It's ladies' only and there are Christmas cookies galore. I am currently still scouting for a location, but I will also be inviting friends for my birthday, which is the second tradition if you want to call it that. December: party at my place. January, party elsewhere. I know that to a certain extend guests are counting on me to continue those traditions since they are looking forward to seeing one another. After all, for some this is the only time of the year they see one another. Even before I started organising these two parties, Frida had been hosting a much larger advent party at her place and at one stage got mildly annoyed that people kept counting on being invited without ever thinking of returning the favour, so this year she hosted the advent party at her gallery, combining it with their charity event. Many other people have told me they stopped organising annual events at one point when they felt that everybody was taking them and their hospitality for granted.

Myself, I don't actually mind that the motivation to attend is not so much about the host(ess) as about hanging out with the whole group of people. Despite all the effort involved, I want to host these two annual get-togethers that nobody is forcing me to do. I enjoy investing both time and money and it makes me happy to see when people are enjoying themselves. I am thrilled when somebody else invites me to their party, be it a one-off thing or an annual highlight, but I would still invite the same crowd regardless of their party-hosting potential.