Halloween Party? Terrifying!

My dream of a radiant life includes a huge Halloween party every year. The kind that brings my friends from all over the country to visit. I envision the various rooms of my house (definitely not my current house!) holding different fun activities - a room for dancing, a fortune-telling room, a room for watching spooky movies, etc. It's a big dream with big plans.

The reality? I haven't had a Halloween party since I was 19 and I haven't had any parties for about 15 years. The last few didn't go so well and the very last one was a disaster. I can host a casual group of friends coming over for pizza and movies or even to stay for the weekend, but anything more formal than that terrifies me. You know, formal, as in, I send out invitations and people R.S.V.P.  If I just send out invites and I don't plan everything with everyone in advance, no one will come, right? Gulp! Not that I'm a control freak or anything. :-)

So, yeah, I decided maybe this year was the time to start taking steps in the direction of my dream. I combined the type of get-togethers I'm used to with the formal invitation thing. I invited all my out-of-town friends to come stay for the weekend. I actually mailed out invitations. I'm planning activities and food.

We're also inviting some in-town friends over on Halloween night as an open house kind of thing. Stop by, have some yummies, stay or don't according to your other plans. With actual invitations again, although these may be by email.

I'm terrified. I think no one will come. I'm determined to have fun doing the activities I've planned and make it a great Halloween, anyway. But this is way out on the limb for me. I hope it doesn't break.