It’s one of my favorite days of the month! It’s “Let’s Look At” day with Shay and Erika  , and I LOVE reading through these links getting a glimpse into your lives! Today we’re looking at entertaining ideas.

• In July, we looked at a Typical Day.
• In August, we looked at Favorite Binge Shows.
• September we looked at our calendars.
• In October, we looked at favorite fall recipes.

Let’s just take a moment and pause right here. I don’t consider myself an entertainer. About once a year, I have people over to our home for Book Club…really, wine club. The rest of the year, we have family over haphazardly to join in on a meal, but I don’t consider my gift in life entertaining. I bust out the paper plates, everyone serves themselves, and we do the couple of dishes from the main meal at the end of the night.

Normal entertaining stresses me out to the MAX. And I am always so in awe of my friends and mother-in-law that so clearly have the gift of entertaining. They skate through having tons of people come to their house for parties, dinners, etc., with ease. Teach me your ways!!!

I host our December book club every year, and I honestly adore doing it. We have so much fun, and it ends up being a little kick-off to the holiday season with the girls.

My favorite part of the whole night is taking this picture, where we all smash ourselves together on the stairs for a picture.

And I have learned a few things from hosting this get-together every year to keep an anxious entertainer calm…

-1- I pre-work the food. I plan to have 3-4 dips/snacky things for the girls, and at least three of them needs to be able to be made before the day of. It allows me my sanity when trying to prep decorations, glasses, clean the house to remove the signs of a toddler living here.

Every year, though, I make this dip because the girls request it every year.

-2- I like to have one signature drink, and then a couple bottles of wine for those that don’t want the signature drink. The past couple of years, I’ve done homemade hot chocolate in the crockpot. Then I’ve added a hot chocolate bar for the girls to make their own drink. Peppermint schnapps, whipped cream, red sprinkles, marshmallows, and peppermint sticks.

-3- There’s a time and place to dress up and get all fancy. Girls book club to kick off the holidays is not one of them. We do Christmas jammies. There’s not a single piece of clothing that is more “Lauren” than comfy pajamas.

-4- I worry about getting people drinks for about 20 minutes when people arrive. And then I mentally have to give myself permission to chill and enjoy the rest of the night.

I’m so excited to read through the link-ups! I love to see all of you creative, wonderful people share your ideas on how to entertain and decorate flawlessly!

Next month, we’re looking at our gift wrapping station!