Miss Manners: How can I reciprocate a friend's lavish parties when my home is modest?
A reader tells Miss Manners they once matched a friend's lavish dinner parties but now live in much smaller homes and feel unable to host similarly elegant gatherings.
Dear Miss Manners: I had a good friend who had these lavish dinner parties in her perfect house. I reciprocated often, but started to feel intimidated because we had to move to smaller places and are just not able to be fancy with parties anymore.