Last night we hosted a gathering of over a dozen writers from the online writer’s forum to which Nancy and I both belong. It was a delightful evening full of laughter and good conversation. Hostessing is potentially very stressful. I feel responsible to make sure that all the food arrangements run smoothly, to make sure that everyone gets introduced to everyone else, to make sure that everyone is having a good time. It is particularly stressful if I have to splice the hostessing with running upstairs to manage parenting. But none of those stresses manifested last night. All of the conversations were inclusive, everyone was understanding when I needed to duck out for kid stuff. The kids were all well behaved. There were a couple of altercations between Gleek and a cousin, but nothing unmanageable. I’m so glad that it all went well, because that means I can do it again sometime. I can’t host large parties often, they are too disruptive to our regular schedule, but it is nice to know that it can work really well. Now I need to rest before tackling the family events the rest of this weekend.