My first dinner party!

Today I threw my first dinner party since moving to this town and it was one of the funnest nights I've had here! I can't believe it took me this long to do it. In undergrad I always threw the Ramadan and Eid parties. At home I throw the summer and break parties. My enthusiasm for hosting people is definitely inherited from both of my parents.

Most of my guests were invited the day before and some that day, so yes this is bad planning on my part. I estimated that half of the people I invited would show up because that's how it usually works, but more than half made it. In total we were 14 people.

What's even worse planning is that I didn't wake up until 11 AM that day and I still had to do all the shopping. I had a list of recipes that I was planning on trying out including a feta cheese penne pasta casserole, seared scallops, baked nachos, shrimp salad, and pineapple chicken.

Two hours before the party I only had 1 dish done and I had yet to get ready myself. So I went into panic mode and called on 2 friends who I'd know would be there for me. An hour before the party they took over absolutely everything in the kitchen and let me go get ready. They had to do some scavenger hunting and recipe expirementing of their own. If it wasn't for their help the food would still not be ready as of this moment.

It started at 6 PM and people came and went at different times. The food for the most part turned out great and people brought all kinds of deserts. It was a great opportunity for people to meet each other and I was glad that all the different little groups cliqued which is something I was worried about.

We ate, smoked hookah, played taboo, played new card games that the guys taught us, watched the Grammy's, smoked more hookah, had desert, and we watched a pirated copy of Taken. We did a lot of laughing and there was lots of complimenting. Hot Jordanian Guy told me like 3 times how nice the gathering was and I know he liked the food cause I can't count how many times he got up to get more. The last of the bunch ended up leaving after 1 AM and I know they all have 8AM classes!