Our first dinner party!

Well, we made it to Smyrna and are loving this new chapter of our lives. Boxes are unpacked, the Penske truck has been returned, and I think my head has finally stopped spinning from the whirlwind that we just experienced. I will do a big blog post about the move and the week it took to get settled later but, today's post is about our first dinner party.

Jace and I have never entertained before. Our parents and sister-in-law visited us while we were in Gainesville but to say that we had friends over, no. This past Saturday night we wanted to thank Jay and Lisa Cash for letting us spend the night with them the night before we moved into our apartment. We thought we would do the Southern thing and host dinner. Jace and I were both excited to have friends over. The last time Jay and Lisa were at our apartment, they brought boxes up and helped carry in our mattress and couch. With time, the boxes have been unpacked and this once empty space looks and feels like a home.

Now, there is no motivation greater to clean your house than when guests come over. I keep a clean house but we needed to do the weekly chores: dusting, vacuuming, mopping, laundry. I also had to go to the grocery store and gather groceries for our dinner. Jace and I had thought about grilling hamburgers and having the traditional summer sides with our meal. I need to mention that grilling hamburgers is a BIG thing to us. At our Gainesville apartment, we couldn't have a grill. Our new complex has grills and we planned on being one of the first people to use them. With grocery list in hand, I decide to stop by the apartment club house and double check if the grills were in fact working. Thank goodness, I didn't buy five pounds of hamburgers because the grills are not working yet because our complex is still so new. I ran back to our apartment and in a slightly dramatic way, opened every cookbook I have and even had Jace pouring over recipes. We were hosting a dinner party and had no idea what we were going to have for dinner! Jace being the rational one, calmly suggested chicken lime tacos which is one of our favorite meals. We quickly decided on a Mexican themed dinner and after I redid my grocery list, I headed for Kroger.

Once home, I put dinner in the crockpot and fixed a peach cobbler. Jace and I finished cleaning the apartment and before we knew it, it was almost time for Jay and Lisa to come over. Before they came, I set out all my dishes, serving utensils, and napkins--honey I was ready to entertain! The chicken was done and needed to be shredded. Y'all I opened up the crockpot and the five boneless, skinless chicken breasts must have shrunk in size when they cooked. I kept shredding hoping that somehow, miraculously more chicken would appear. I looked at Jace and told him to fill up on chips and salsa and to let Jay and Lisa eat the chicken. I also told him to run down the road to Pollo Tropical and pick up some chicken before they got here. Y'all, if I'm lying, I'm dying five minutes after I had this panic attack of "we-are-hosting-our-first-dinner-party-and-don't-have-enough-food", Jay and Lisa knocked on our door. We were honest with Jay and Lisa and told them that we didn't have enough food and thankfully we all laughed about it. In a "five loaves of bread and two fish" moment, miraculously there was more than enough chicken for the chicken lime tacos! The evening was so much fun and Jay and Lisa complimented me on dinner. I knew the peach cobbler was a big hit when Jay had his bowl already ate before I sat down to the table after serving everyone.

Overall, we had a great time hosting our first dinner party and had even greater first guests! Thankfully, it is something that gave us a laugh and Jay and Lisa were understanding. We welcome more guests and hope to see many more friends soon!