I’ve got a green hangover this morning.

Last night we hosted the Concord High Alpine team for a pre-race pasta dinner. 20 athletes plus assorted parents, coaches and siblings.

I tried to be really green: no disposable plates or cutlery or cups or napkins.

Oh, and also no water in the kitchen. The pipes to the sink and dishwasher are frozen — so now all this has to be carried into the mud room and hand washed in the utility sink.  Just thinking about it makes my already chapped hands hurt.  We’ll see how those Skoy cloths hold up to all this.

Despite the extra work, it was really pretty easy to green the team dinner right up. I have about 40 plastic dinner plates that I have bought on sale over the years for outdoor barbecues. I’ve already mentioned my giant collection of metal forks from the Salvation Army Store, and unlike a recent meat loaf disaster, the pasta didn’t require a hacksaw knife to get it into bite sized pieces.  Last year I picked up about 20 packages of cloth napkins at the Company C tent sale (four for two bucks!) and I bought soda in cans (and wine in bottles).

I’m also feeling pretty good about all the money I didn’t spend. I am thinking it would have cost at least $20 to buy disposable products for that many people, more for cute stuff.

Still, and I know it’s wrong, but a tiny part of me wishes we had just filled a couple garbage bags with paper plates and paper napkins and plastic forks and plastic cups, and had gone to bed with a spotless kitchen.

After a long debate, we decided to hold our annual Christmas Open House. What with starting GreenPoma.com both money and time are tight, and the financial company severance package isn’t going to last forever. But, the way I figure it, the couple hundred dollars we’ll be spending on cocktails won’t push us over the brink into financial ruin, and this year especially, who doesn’t need an excuse to get out and share some holiday cheer? Besides, it will be the perfect opportunity to show off how beautiful our home looks, now that every single lamp and fixture has been converted to bulbs for sale at GreenPoma.com. We were about 75% of the way there through normal bulb replacement, and now I just have to figure out what to do with the 15 or so bulbs that we pulled out that are still usable. For now they are stuffed in a laundry basket in the cellar.

The first green change I made for this party was to buy about 40 metal forks for 3 bucks from the Salvation Army the other day. I’ve never been a big fan of plastic utensils anyway, and I can just throw these in a drawer and pull them out whenever we entertain. None of them match, but since they will be on the buffet, I’m not too concerned.

Today I am going to figure out if I have enough cloth napkins to avoid buying large napkins. I don’t think I can avoid cocktail sized napkins, but I have loads left over from last year, so at least there won’t be a new purchase of disposable paper ones.