Mixing Up Your Holiday Mixers

It's the time of year in which Holiday parties are running rampant. If you find yourself with multiple parties to go to in one weekend I recommend that they be as different as possible. You don't want to stagnate halfway through and thereby deprive yourself of your share of swedish meatballs and mini quiches. The key to avoiding Holiday Burn Out is mixing it up. Its the same principle I use when creating seating arrangments at a dinner party. Just as a simple shallow-deep-shallow-moody-shallow-deep pattern works best for encouraging conversation, you should mix your party types to stave off a crushing sense of pointlessness. You shouldn't pool your shallow people or your shallow parties. Just a tip I've picked up over the years.

Take this weekend, for example.

Friday night was a sweet and innocent affair as I took my Young Women for pizza and to see Enchanted. Then we came back to my apartment where we gossiped and read fashion magazines. (I love pretending I'm a teenage girl!)

Saturday night's house party, on the other hand, was not exactly sweet and innocent. The Diet Coke was flowing, my hair was in excellent Farrah Fawcett-flipping condition, the music was just how I like it (loud, danceable, old-school), and the flirting was in high gear. I was lucky to be home by 4AM. It was a little bit crazy. And by crazy, I mean Crazy FUN!

And then on Sunday, as befits a holy day, I attended an intimate dinner party. You know those dinner parties that you see on romantic shows like Notting Hill where the table is immaculate and there are several courses of food, all of which is amazing? And everyone is clever and stunningly funny? And you think, "Oh my gosh, that looks like it would be so much fun! Why aren't the dinner parties I go to that much fun? And why isn't Hugh Grant at any of them? This is so unfair." Well, friends, that was the dinner party I went to on Sunday (complete with the role of Hugh Grant as performed by my adorable friend Joseph). I sort of couldn't believe I was at such an amazing event. Everything was perfect! Especially the company. I have some damn funny friends, just so you know. And I could really wax lyrical about the food. It was all so beautifully prepared! And even more beautifully tasty. I practically made myself ill with all of that eating and laughing and eating and laughing. That can't be good for the digestive tract.

Three parties in three days, each as different as could be, but each one super fun. See how that works? Without mixing the formats up I would have been bored half way through, I guarantee it. I may not know much about some things, but by golly, I know how to get through the gauntlet of Holiday parties.