Housewarming

It has been a few months since we had bought our place and started working on it and a couple more months since we've moved in, so this past weekend we decided we were settled in enough finally to have our housewarming party.  It was the first party Nico and I had ever hosted and it was pretty emotionally loaded because of the personal significance of home and hosting to me.

My home life growing up was complicated and one of my parents was a hoarder, so our house was uninviting to guests, to say the least. The last time I had people over when I was young was for my 10th birthday party; I was in a new school so I didn't know many people, and the next day the few girls who had actually come were spreading around the school that my house was gross and smelled like cat pee. That was honestly before the hoarding got bad, so it only went downhill from there and my home environment saddled me with a whole lot of baggage. A home should be a safe, comfortable place to gather. I dreamed of being the person whose house everyone wants to hang out at, and I picture family gathering around my fireplace at Christmas, friends coming over for weekly chic dinner parties, kids who would bring all their friends over after school for movie nights. I don't know if I'll ever live up to that, but I did work really hard to make our new place look clean, fresh, and inviting and I hosted my very first adult party that went well and, baby, I am on my way.

I wanted a lush spread of hors d'oeuvres that would have something for everyone and not make anyone suspicious of the vegan fare. I settled on a homemade hummus trio platter with garlic, black bean, and spinach and artichoke hummus with pita chips and bell peppers for dipping; my carrots in a blanket that are always really popular at potlucks; fresh tomato bruschetta; mini veggie spring rolls; Mexican street corn skewers; and rosemary popcorn that didn't make it to the table because I ran out of time --oops! There was still way too much food, which is just the way I like it. For drinks, I made a couple pitchers of sangria and we had beer and sparkling lemonade as well. We had just gotten a backyard firepit and picked up vegan marshmallows to roast over the fire for dessert, but everyone was chatting and we lost track of time so it was too late to start a fire, which is probably my only real regret for the evening. I was so anxious beforehand and thought I needed to plan out every moment, which was so not the case. I made a playlist on Spotify with a mix of upbeat chill songs from different genres and eras since we had a mix of guests, and just let everyone mingle and it was perfect and hands off. I'm learning about myself and my hosting style, and everyone who came said they enjoyed themselves. So I'd call this night a success.

Spotify