My wife & I hosted my family's Christmas Eve get together this year. We had 16 people coming so we had to get creative with seating for the main meal. My Aunt & Uncle let us borrow their backup dining room table so we put the leaves in ours and butted to the tables together to make an oober table. The table stretched into the living room. We put a long table in the hallway for the chafing dishes and buffet service. It worked out really well.
I'm really pleased with the way the house handled the crowd. The open floor plan really made a difference. We do not have a morning room and I do not regret that decision. We have the 'normal' island which is different than the boomerang island some of you have. At one point everyone was gathered in the kitchen and it fit everyone just fine. The family room was perfect for gift giving / unwrapping and that included the giant 8-ft tree (we have 9-ft ceilings). We put the tree on the kitchen side of the family room next to the breakfast bar. We had planned on putting the appetizers on the breakfast bar, but the gifts sprawled out pretty far and made the breakfast bar less accessible. My wife called an audible and relocated the bulk of the apps to the family room coffee table. This also freed up space in the kitchen as she helped prepare dinner.
The whole event was a great success and I'm proud of our house. Maybe that sounds weird but I'm glad we did it.
Can't wait to have big parties at our house. We are part of a car club and we can get quite a few to show up. We also have decent size families so holidays will be fun.
ReplyDeleteThis post just builds excitement for our house. We have lived for 12 years in a small bi-level house with little room for gatherings of any sort. I am already telling out of state family to come visit. Something I have not done before.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound weird to me at all. Congratulations on loving your new house! We didn't take a morning room either, and I know I will not regret it. They are beautiful, but they were redundant for us. We were much better off getting all six bedrooms, three of which are quite large.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't been hosting much in this house - mainly just friends of the children. I can't wait until we move in and have a party-worthy house!
Congratulations again!
I'm so glad to hear it went well!
ReplyDeleteWe hosted a Thanksgiving dinner here and a Christmas lunch. LOVED the space. We fit older adults in the dining room. The kids were in the morning room. And us 20-30 somethings at the bar and "boom-a-rang" island. The food was set out on the other side of the island and along all the counters and it worked great for us. (we do have a morning room but no basement here). Entertaining is much easier in this house. And like you, the open plan helps!
I'm glad your holidays went great. Happy New Year!
We hosted both Thanksgiving and Christmas and the new home provided a huge amount of space for all to relax and enjoy. At one point at Christmas everyone was gathered in the kitchen around the big island with my wife cooking the dinner in the ovens without having to kick everyone out or constantly move everyone out of the way.
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