Category / parties
Fun with a photo booth
The Luncheon
Cookin’, and hangin’, and wishin’, and dreamin’
I have so much in my head that’s just begging to spill out onto the page, but it will have to wait. I’ve got somewhere between 15-20 people coming to my house for Easter lunch on Sunday, and I’ve got tons to do to get ready for it! I absolutely LOVE hosting people at my house, and can’t WAIT to have everybody here together. Most of the people, besides my immediate family, are other single people from church whose families are out of town and needed some place to go. It has become a tradition to host at least one random person at our family holidays, but this year is definitely a new record! I figure, the more, the merrier! I’m so happy to have friends take part in a special celebration. Plus, I like an excuse to cook for hungry people.
Flash Photography
And a shout-out to Melissa, one of my faithful readers and an old cruising buddy (and wonderful friend)!
Weekend Wrap-Up
I’ve had such a good weekend. Friday night I got a pedicure with my sister and another friend, and then the three of us, plus one more, met up for a quiet dinner. It was so nice… just laid back, lot’s of laughing, comfortable shoes… I love nights like that. The pedicure place used a chocolate exfoliator thing on my legs… you haven’t lived until you’ve had a stranger rub chocolate on your legs as you sit in a massage chair sipping a cappuccino. Hmmm… that sounds a bit racier than it really was. After the pedicure, I felt like a new woman. A new woman with dark purple toenails… again. The edginess is back. And maybe here to stay.
Then Saturday I spent the whole day cooking and cleaning to prepare for a shower I hosted tonight for sister Lindsay (the one getting married). I absolutely love the preparation that goes into throwing a party. I like the cleaning up afterward part a lot less. Saturday night I turned my iPod on “shuffle” (yes, the iPod magically works again), and cooked for hours. I cooked for the party, and also made Christmas goodies for some of my favorite coworkers. Since they put up with me for another year (almost five, actually), I figure they deserve some baked goods.
I did such a good job of preparing yesterday that today I was able to sneak in a quick nap after church. A nap on a party day is so very rare, and it was just the thing I needed to keep me going through the party. The party went fantastically well, many of my sister’s bridesmaids, old roommates, and friends from childhood came by, along with some of her new family members. It’s weird to see that my sister is going to have NEW family members… new sisters-in-law. Part of me finds the whole situation a bit strange, but I’m thankful that these new family members seem to be strong Christian women who treat her well, so I guess it’s okay to share her a little.
So it was a good weekend. I got to spend quality time with friends and family, got rubbed down with chocolate, danced in my kitchen and ate large quantities of cake. Yes, it was a very good weekend.
I won
Fruit pizza disaster
I’m trying my darndest to make a fruit pizza for a dinner party tonight, but in this battle of the wills, it looks like the fruit pizza may win! Is it bad if I just stop at the convenience store and bring a couple of boxes of Milk Duds instead of a home-made dessert?
I feel so defeated… time to go back to battle.
Painting party
My ever-growing home-improvement project continues. Yesterday two very sweet guys came over and helped me paint 64 feet of dental crown molding. The “dental” part of the crown molding meant we had to paint the intricate pieces with a TINY paint brush. It added about three hours to an otherwise simple project, but doing it with other people made it fun (and I learned all sorts of interesting “guy opinions” on various topics). As a thank-you, I treated them to Sonic milk shakes and a home-cooked dinner. I figure I came out ahead.
This afternoon I’m changing gears and will become a lean, mean cooking machine. I’m hosting our family’s Easter Lunch tomorrow after church, and I’m very excited. I had to resist the urge to go buy more dishes and decorations for my 10 guests (because all of my money has gone toward stone and crown molding), but I think it will still be nice with what I have. I’ll crank up my music, put on my cute-and-frilly apron (hand-made by sister Sarah!) and cook for the next few hours. I’ll feel just like Martha Stuart (except the vegetables for my vegetable casserole came from the frozen section of Target instead of from my organic beet farm in the backyard). Okay, maybe I’m more like Rachel Ray. Whatever. It will still be fun!
Mess Hall Cook
I love to throw parties. I just love having people over, whether it’s two people or 75 (like my Christmas party). I love cooking for and getting to hang out with people I like in a comfortable, laid-back setting like my house.
A few weeks ago I got the grand idea to cook dinner for a bunch of my friends and have a game night. At first, I figured it might be 10. Or 15. It ended up being 25. That’s a lot of food!
When I went to Target Friday night around 9:00 and bought FIVE packages of chicken, FIVE bags of chips, FIVE packages of rice, TEN avocados, FIVE bags of salad and a gazillion other groceries (you get the picture)… the people at Target thought I was nuts. And I had a new appreciation for those ladies who have ten kids and have to cook for them every night. I just couldn’t do it. All these years of living on my own, I couldn’t imagine cooking for that many people on a regular basis. Or doing their laundry.
But one night was fun.
I served four big casseroles of my favorite King Ranch Chicken, plus all the sides, home-made guacamole, and dessert. It was so much fun preparing everything Friday night and Saturday morning, and when my friends started showing up (and kept showing up… even more than I had originally planned for) it was so much fun to serve them and then play games with them. My new motto… feed ’em then beat ’em!