Let's do a lunch......

.... and that's just what we're doing..... a Valentine's pot-luck lunch with some of our neighbors (the usual suspects, as we call them), a couple of our friends from Houston, and a couple of new friends we've met here in town.

I called everyone up while I was resting my back-- don't know what I did, but I've had a back ache since Saturday, which is slowly getting better with each day. So while I was sitting here trying not to do much of anything, I told my husband that we really should plan to do something for Valentine's Day. It didn't hurt my back much to pick up the phone and punch in some numbers, and everyone we asked said they would be more than happy to come. I sent out cute little Valentine reminder-cards in today's mail.

So that's the plan. There will be eleven of us, and I think we'll do a sit-down dinner that starts with little picky-foods and punch in the living room. Being that some of our friends haven't met our neighbors, I think it will be easier if everyone meets in the living room before sitting down at the dining room table. The living room and dining room are already decorated for Valentine's Day-- I did that before my back started to ache...... and I spent this afternoon sitting at my desk and making pretty place cards with vintage Valentine post cards.

The seating plan is already worked out..... another reason why I love to use place cards. A dinner party conversation is much easier when you know enough about your guests to know who to put next to whom. We will have an interesting group here, people with enough in common to make for good conversation, but not too much in common so they can't learn something new from one another.

We started off with a small party group in the Clear Lake house..... I think we invited less than ten friends when we began having dinner parties and holiday parties. That group grew to nearly 35 people over the years.... and our Christmas party list topped out at 60 people one year. So we're starting off small again, but I'm hoping that number grows over the coming years.


The weather is starting to get better..... not back to the usual Spring-like winter, but at least we're not deep into a frigid cold snap that lasts for a week. The end of this week looks promising, with temperatures due to climb up to the high 60s and low 70s. A little drum-roll please........ sounds like real Texas weather to me.