As usual, there is a middle ground that is being unexplored here.
As some posters have pointed out, Shabbos is a time that should be spent with family — especially the Shabbos meals. We all lead hectic lives and I know that, at least in my family, the Shabbos meal time is the one time in the week when we know that we will all sit at the table together and be able to enjoy each other’s company. We, as a family, value that time.
That being said, however, I think that if we had to have our family *and only our family* for company week after week after week with no other “new faces” to look at, we might eventually go stir crazy. So, once in a while, we may have “new faces” over for a meal. Perhaps a family with whom we are friends, my sister and her family, etc. We don’t entertain (or go out to others) too often because we don’t want to give up our family meal time either, but once in a while, it’s nice to have a change of pace. Sometimes, it almost becomes a tradition — there is one family that we usually have over on the last day of Pesach — we joke that we are their “gebrokts dealer.”
Bottom line, I suppose, is this – we can’t envision entertaining (or being entertained) every week. We need our family time. But, on the other hand, if we *never* had guests (or went out), then we would fall into a rut which is also bad. So once in a while (perhaps once every other month or once a quarter), we have guests in or eat out. For us, that’s a nice balance.
The Wolf