SN, as usual your wise words really hit home with me!
DH and I always host an annual Christmas party, usually the Saturday before Christmas. One year DH's brother and his wife went to Asheville, NC to celebrate BIL's birthday and enjoy the fabulous Christmas at Biltmore (the famous Vanderbilt estate) so they had to miss our party.
Now BIL and his wife are affulent and childless and their house is perfect in every way. Clean, beautiful, meticulously decorated. BIL is constantly improving it. We are not at all affluent and have 2 kids. DH is not that handy and I'm no neat freak so, needless to say, our home is nothing like theirs. I always wondered what they really thought when they visited our home.
THe next year Iasked sis-in-law if they were going back to celebrate BIL's birthday again as they'd enjoyed it so much. SHe said, "Oh, no! George and I agreed that we'd never miss your party again for anything." SHe said they'd spent the evening in front of a roaring fire, surronded by perfect decorations in the most beautiful, oppulent setting you could imagine. But all they'd done was talk about our party and what we must be doing and "do you think we can call or will they not hear the phone over the noise of the party?"
Now I never worry about making my house perfect to entertain. If the one couple I thought my find our home wanting prefer our party to the Biltmore estate, then I guess we're doing something right.
Happy Christmas in JUly!