A Weekend With Candles, Friends and Mom

Last Friday my mom and I co-hosted a PartyLite event at my house. I am always a bit wary of hosting parties like these for several reasons. One big worry I have is actually finding "enough" people to attend so that I don't feel embarrassed about wasting the consultant's time. Another worry is people feeling obligated to buy something (since I usually feel like that when I go to parties where ordering is the name of the game). Last but not least, I think about the time it takes to prepare for something like that, by which I mean make my house (the downstairs at least) look presentable and figure out what kind of snacks to serve.

All of these things flashed through my mind when my mom asked me if I wanted to co-host a PartyLite party and asked if we could have it at my house since she thinks her house is too little. But it was the first time I could remember my mom excited about being the hostess for any type of "special order" party and I could not refuse. And anyway, I figured if we did it together, there would be two of us making preparations and it wouldn't seem so stressful.

My mom and I both have Fridays off now, so it didn't take long for us to plan a Friday in March in which she would come over early in the day to help prepare for the festivities, then stay the night in our oft-vacant guest room and go home the following day.

Although we live fairly close to each other (it's only about a 45-60 minute drive, depending on traffic), we don't get to spend as much time together as we would like. Michael is allergic to my parents' dog, so our visits there can't last longer than 5 or 6 hours, and they can't bring Sadie to our house right now since she doesn't get along with other dogs and we have Flynn. So needless to say, I was really looking forward to spending some quality time with my mom.

I drove over to Vancouver Friday morning to pick her up since my dad had to work that afternoon and would need their car. We stopped at Winco to pick up a few groceries for the evening and then decided to head for downtown Portland so I could make my 1:30pm acupuncture appointment without going all the way home to Aloha first. We found a cute little bistro in southeast Portland and stopped there for lunch before my appointment. The garden veggie soup was pretty good (if a bit pricey) and Mom and I both got a kick out of the look on the counter girl's face when I asked if they had any wheat-free bread. Too funny.

After acupuncture at the very beautiful NCNM student clinic, we headed home to get ready for the party. I had already done most of the cleaning, but Mom and Michael helped me get everything looking just right. Mom assembled a very tasty taco salad type of dip and we had both sparkling apple cider and wine as beverage offerings--beer probably would have gone better with the dip, but I don't like it and Mom thought the wine would be a suitable alternative.

Sara, the PartyLite consultant arrived about a half hour before the party was set to begin, and set up a very beautiful demo table of candles and candle holders. I was pleased to find that the catalog pictures really didn't do the products justice and there was one outdoor candle lantern in particular that caught my eye. I could just see it on our patio table during the summer, casting a comforting glow and encouraging lots of lazy evenings talking and playing cards with friends and family.

Three of my close friends were able to make it to the party, and with my mom and me that made 5 people at the show--a reasonable turnout, I decided. I had told mom earlier that we just wouldn't worry about who could make it or how much they might want to spend, and would focus instead on just having fun getting together. That took the last two of my previous worries right off the table and I was free to enjoy the evening.

Sara did a great job talking about PartyLite and I could tell that she genuinely believes in the quality of the company and its products. There was much laughter and oohing and ahhing over the candles as the evening progressed, and everyone firmly decided that the leather-scented candle (yes, I am not joking, it was advertised as being a leather-scented candle) was not something any of us wanted.

By the time the last guest had left for the evening (sometime around 11pm and way past my mom's bedtime), we were both tired, but very happy. I had ordered some candles and spent enough to buy the lantern for half price (!) and Sara told me that once the final totals were tallied, we would have quite a bit of credit for free merchandise.

Michael came home shortly after Sara left, and the three of us sat around the table talking and polishing off the rest of the dip before calling it a night. All in all, the party came off much better than I could ever have imagined, and I told my mom that I was glad it was a small group of people. I (being somewhat shy and definitely not a social butterfly) do best in small groups where I feel like I can really spend some time with each person and not get overwhelmed trying to be everywhere at once.

The next morning, Michael, Mom and I took Flynn for a walk to the dog park. It was a beautiful sunny morning and I could smell the freshness of spring in the air. We had fun taking the long way home, even stopping in at the first garage sale I have seen this year--brave souls to plan agarage sale in March.

I took Mom home before I went to work that afternoon, and we both agreed that it had been a very fun weekend and that our PartyLite party had been a success! Now it will only be a year or so before we host another one. :)