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[quote=Anonymous][/quote]

Who says 6-11? That's a really early start for dinner, and a long time for an open house. When we do an open house it's normally a 3 hour duration. I've never been invited to a longer one. It would be hard to have the food available and fresh for 5 hours. When we do dinner parties of course there is just a start time. You never put an end time on dinner parties. It's not necessary since the party . [/quote]

Just because that's the way you do it, doesn't mean everyone does a 3 hour window.  I've known many people who do an entire evening and in fact, most of the people I socialize do.  People can arrive at 6:00, there will be hors d'oeuvres and drinks.  Dinner served at 6:30 until about 7:30-7:45.  People can then sit and chat, or mingle while we clear the table.  Around 8:30 we have coffee, tea, after dinner drinks, and dessert for those who want.  We sit around until about 9:00-9:30.  People then have an hour or so to chat, some go back to the living room to sit on the sofa.  People catch up.  Early folks leave around here.  But around 10:40, I will start to do some basic cleaning like making final rounds to pick up dishes that have been left around the house, starting to pick up paper napkins and more the snacks that haven't been touched for a while back into the kitchen.  This is generally the clue that the party is winding down.  I have never explicitly asked anyone to leave and will sometimes have people hanging around in the dining room for a while while I'm cleaning, but I'm not mingling and socializing, but working in the kitchen.  I've had friends who come and sit on the barstools in the kitchen and chat and keep me company while I work.  I will stop and take a break if/when people start gathering their things to leave.  After 11:00, I'll say things like "can you help put the chips back in the bag?" or "do you mind putting all the napkins on the kitchen table?" (I use paper napkins for snacks and hors d'oeuvres and cloth for dinner).  Since many people do not reciprocate hosting, I've rarely had a shortage of people who accept and seem to enjoy themselves at our dinner parties.  We have good food, open access to the liquor cabinet (and I have a pretty nicely stocked liquor cabinet) for those who choose, and a pretty nice space for entertaining. [/quote]

Emily Post is having a fit reading this.[/quote]

Yes. I'm dying. "Can you help put the chips back in the bag?" [/quote]

On so many levels. First, who still has chips out at 10:40 pm when it's allegedly a sit down dinner with cloth napkins. Second, saving chips that people have been pawing through for 5 hours seems gross. 3rd, if you are going to save a few chips don't get your guests in on the fun. It would really make me wonder about the rest of the food.

How can you have a dinner party, with cloth napkins no less, with people coming and going at random times. [/quote]

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