Kathleen Dinaso

Parties are fun! And the preparation can be as exciting as the actual party. As a child my parents were the King and Queen of party. This royal couple threw parties for everything. My parents used parties to fulfill obligations, get acquainted with new neighbors, business associates or just to gather old and new friends. Everyone loved the parties even my brother and I. When planning a Chinese Party my parents took my brother and me prior to the party, to Chinatown for the day. We shopped in the gift shops for games, Chinese puzzles, a red dragon and a string of Chinese lanterns. We ate lunch at one of the Chinese restaurants and then continued to shop, picking up three pounds of noodles dough squares at the noodle factory for homemade egg rolls and the last stop was the Chinese vegetables for the egg rolls and other dishes, which were frozen until the party time. The entire family was involved in preparing for the party. We chopped the vegetable and made the home made egg rolls, hung lanterns and set tables.

In the first home I can remember our family did not have a basement. It would have been easy for my parents to say, “We don’t have room to entertain”, but they love people and parties. So they planned a Hawaiian Luau in our backyard. That night it rained and the party was moved to the garage for one of the greatest fun parties everyone can remember. When my parents sold this house the couple that purchased it said they wanted our house because it was the ‘Party House’. He said year after year he drove by and saw the lights of our parties. He thought there was something magical about the house. Well, I’m here to tell you it is all about the people in the house.