Is this normal over here?

Then it is weird, in my American opinion.

Well to each his own, certainly! And of course I can't speak for everyone, but when the stars align and our good friends' kids are staying at friends houses and the adults have an empty evening in their diary and are ready for a nice weekend together, we make up the spare room, cook a big dinner, drink a bunch of wine, play games, go to bed late, get up and enjoy a nice big pot of coffee, and go about our day.... It makes for a lovely weekend, really! 

Well it went very well!... And it was nice to have people for the night to be honest.... It does get lonely sitting in this house by myself.  The food was a hit and there was loads of alcohol to be had.  Three of us managed to stay up until 4am (we were cleaning this kitchen).   It was a great time... The only bad bit though was they didn't leave until 2pm that was only bad because I wanted to suffer with my hangover all on my own.

One couple was in their mid 20's, me I'm in my late 20's, and the other couple is in their early 30's, three of us work together and we're all in mid to high managerial positions however we don't have kids.

I still think it's a little strange but whatever as long as you have a great time!! In the end though it was a really fun thing to do and I'll be having another one New Year's Eve.  

Oh, good! I'm glad you had fun Maureen!!! Sounds like a good night!

As for the next day, we're NOT early birds on weekends, but we don't particularly like sleeping late if we're not at home, so we generally have some coffee and hit the road in the morning and then either get on with our day or nurse the occaisional hangover in the comfort of our own home.  Sounds like your friends should learn to do the same! 

Maybe it's vaguely juvenile, but it's fun and I hope we're never too grown up to not stay up late and play once in a while! 

It's pretty typical of the people I know...and their ages / responsibilites / etc vary wildly.  It's usually in the invite!  "C'mon down to my place, loads of alcohol, and floor to pass out on!"

The trick is making sure your guest accomodations are comfortable enough to offer...but not comfortable enough that they don't leave...

heheh
wench

Then it is weird, in my American opinion.

We do this sometimes. We have an extra room and if we've got friends over and we're all drinking and staying up late then sometimes it's easier and safer to just have them stay the night.

It's perfectly comfortable in our group of friends.

 

It's pretty typical of the people I know...and their ages / responsibilites / etc vary wildly. It's usually in the invite! "C'mon down to my place, loads of alcohol, and floor to pass out on!

Exactly!

Jamie and I are 38 and 36, respectively, we all work full-time, and the friends in question are the same age with two kids! You're never too old to stay up too late and drink too much wine to drive home at the weekend, IMHO! LOL.

Too right, Anne!

Well if it is any consolation, it isn't just your friends. We are going around to a friends house with a couple of other people for a Christmas works do, and we were told we could just stay over if we didn't want to drive home.  I thought it was a bit strange at the time, but perfectly sensable and very kind.  As it turns out we are doing a Sunday lunch time thing due to time restraints.

Thanks Guys!!!

Well I have 4 people spending the night.. Maybe their idea is that because Dave is out to sea they would keep me company... Don't know... But I have eggs, bacon, sausage and potatoes for tomorrow morning.. Forgot the mushrooms but oh well...  One of them offered to cook the breakfast.

Tonight I'm making  for appetizers, spinach dip with the bread and an anti-pasto quiche and for our main course we're having chicken stuffed with mozzerella and mushrooms wrapped with parma ham baked in the oven.  Pasta and Cream sauce and for veg eggplant, zuchinni, onions garlic, and pepers roasted in the oven.     Of course we have beer and wine and other stuff..

So we'll see how it goes.. if anything they'll be stuffed!

I'll let you know tomorrow how it went...

Thanks again,

Maureen

Ooh, could I get the recipe for those?

Well to each his own, certainly! And of course I can't speak for everyone, but when the stars align and our good friends' kids are staying at friends houses and the adults have an empty evening in their diary and are ready for a nice weekend together, we make up the spare room, cook a big dinner, drink a bunch of wine, play games, go to bed late, get up and enjoy a nice big pot of coffee, and go about our day.... It makes for a lovely weekend, really! 

Isnt' that the truth! We do this as well. My husband is from the south and we are living kind of in the middle of nowhere, Lincs. So when we go for a weekend to see friends in Thames Valley, we stay overnight with them--much more fun!
And our place in Lincs. has tons of room--a granny flat as well--for people to come stay with us. We have no hotels close by, so it's really fun to have friends stay the weekend--just like Anne said, stay up late, chat,drink wine & just enjoy the company
Glad it went so well Maureen!
Bethany

I think it's fairly typical. We've invited friends for dinner and offered to have them stay over if their drive back is more than an hour. If our guest room is full, we usually offer the B&B next door. (The last time this happened, the B&B owners were out of town, so they left us the key and our guests had the whole place to themselves!)

And next-morning breakfast is great fun!

Funny thing is they don't live far away at all, they live maybe 20 minutes away max... I guess that is why I was confused to begin with.  I think if I had invited anyone to dinner who lived like an hour away I would have invited them to spend the night immediately. No matter though a good time was had by all!!! 

LOL!
Welllllllll...maybe it's a throw-back to horse-and-buggy days. A tradition that stuck.

Reminds me of something I just came across yesterday...
I try to grab as much info about the place where we live and found a letter written to Fox Talbot, who is the man who came up with the negative (film) process. He lived in Lacock, about five miles from here. The letter was from a relative, telling him she was staying where we live now (they were hotels/lodging houses). It was as though she was 100 miles away, the way she wrote about her experience.

We have a family sleepover at the holidays with brother and sister in law, although we only live 7 miles apart. Its fun though for the 5 kids to get together and get wild. We just shut the door on them, lock it securely, and stay downstairs drinking cocktails until the early morning...until the marital bickering starts