Last Minute Christmas Party

The Beginning

Since I've been home over the Holiday Break, Mommy and I have basically gone everywhere together - to go christmas shopping, grocery shopping, errand running, taking the dogs to the park - we do everything together. So, when Mommy and Beth got together for lunch, naturally I came along too. Of their alphabetical tour of restaurants, I was around for their C restaurant, which Beth chose, and was called Cancun. It was Mexican Food and I have to say, I was disappointed with the server's suggestion of their carnitas for the tacos - I can't tell if the tortillas were what I didn't like or the meat or both. ANYWAY, getting back to the story, over the course of the conversation, Beth was talking about the parties she had hosted and attended over the holiday season and the successes and failures of different parties. 

Mommy remembers the reason we came up with the idea of having a party being for me to meet this boy Beth wanted me to meet, I remember it being Beth and me suggesting we throw a party and Beth remembers the reason for throwing it being my idea - when the party finally came, she thanked me for suggesting it. Whatever the reason, somehow, over the course of the conversation and Mexican food, the three of us decided to throw a party. A party Mommy soon dubbed the "Last Minute Christmas Party," as it would be throw in less than a week from the day we decided to throw it. As we ran the last couple of errands for the day after lunch with Beth, Mommy called friends in the area that she thought would enjoy the party, thinking most people people wouldn't have time to come. Of the five families, she invited, five confirmed to come (but we were still doubtful that none of them would cancel sometime before the party). Daddy caught wind of the party and invited his residents, but we stopped him when he wanted to invite his MAs as we didn't want to OVERLOAD the party just in case everyone came. Beth of course was on the list to come and she was in charge of inviting the family that had the boy I was supposed to meet. Mommy was especially excited for the party, all of us having agreed it should be an adult party. This was a good idea considering it would be a ornament, white elephant gift and cookie exchange all in one. Keeping it adult ensured good white elephant and ornament options - something Beth had seen as a disappointement in previous parties of the Season.

The Planning 

Well, being who we are #OMKV99, Mommy and I IMMEDIATELY began planning. This included 3 separate shopping trips for exchange items and groceries - we also found some RAD Lego apparel at Target which was a fun plus. The food I would say was the biggest worry of the party. To quote Mommy, "we aren't exactly appetizer food people." Well this turned out to be a complete lie because we KILLED it in the food department. Mommy would make meatballs (the amazing ones in the cast-iron skillet), broccoli cheddar dip, we would have fruit (grapes, clementines), candy (you know the basic holiday things)I would make guacamole, and if anyone was really hungry, we got a pork roast to throw in the crock-pot the day of. The greatest challenge of the food was something we gave ourselves, using and filling our charcuterie board. Remember, this was an adult party and we were gonna show off all the class we had :) We had planned the party for a Monday, and since Mommy and Daddy work in the temple most of the day on Thursday and Saturday, we got some of our shopping on Friday and then got last minute things on Monday. 

I have to mention our trusty list that we had the ENTIRE time. It had out grocery list, the list of planned food, to-dos before and the day of, it was seriously the underrated third member of our party planning. We went to Busches for the fancy food - good meat, the pork roast, charcuterie, fruit supplies. Then Meijer for the candy and avocados since they had a better selection than Busches. I'm talking so much about this part of the planning process because it was some serious thought on our part to get this done. While we were getting groceries, we also went to Staples to print out some "Last Minute Christmas Cheer" advent stories for people to take home, Target (yes we went there again) to get some nice baskets to put allergy medicine by the front door (yup, Uncle Chris and some of Daddy's residents did end up using that stuff :), and of course, in a classic Target move, we ended up finding all sorts of other little treasures, including some very fancy and totally classy olive-wood bowls to get the next level on our charcuterie board. 

Then, just in case other people didn't bring or forgot to get their white elephant gifts, we last minute rustled up what games, trader joes treats, candles and knick-knacks we could wrap so anyone not prepared could still participate :)

The Day Of

After taking the dogs for their morning run and collecting supplies in the kitchen, we headed out that morning to pick out last minute groceries ;) get it? I used the last minute thing again. After grocery shopping which took WAY longer than expected, we got back around 2pm. This gave us T-minus 5 hours to get everything else ready. Mommy tossed the roast into the crock-pot as soon as we stepped in the door (it needs to cook 4-6 hours), we put away the groceries, although most we left out as they needed to prepared and served that evening. Then the cleaning began. "We need to get rid of the couches, people can't know we SIT!" Just a fun quote from a video that this process reminded me of. Soon our house was devoid of shoe buckets, dog equipment, magazines, coaster piles, Daddy things (you know, that counter in the kitchen and the side of the bed? Finally they were clean :), things were vacuumed, swept, dusted, as Mommy said, our house was SPARKLING by 5pm rolled around. 

We staggered our showers so things were getting done while someone else was getting ready. For me, this time was critical, as the Charcuterie board and guacamole were the only foods not ready. Hannah hung signs making the last minute christmas objects, Daddy went and picked up the chips we had eaten (well that I had eaten not knowing they were for the party:), Mommy got ready and then started helping me with the charcuterie assembly. Unfortunately, we were ready so last minute that we didn't get any pictures of the party, but you better believe the food table looked AMAZING. The charcuterie board was full with 3 different meats, 4 different cheeses (both soft and hard to people's liking which we learned while searching on the internet how to put together a charcuterie board), fruit, nuts, vegetables, crackers, I gotta admit, Mommy and I did amazing on assembling that baby. Then after that was done, the guacamole was made and the table was set. The cookie table was ready to receive cookies, a chair had been placed in the family room to receive white elephant gifts, all was calm and bright.

The last things to be set-up was putting out two red drink buckets (courtesy of amazon - ew Jeff Bezos but you know, they got to us on time) full of ice and all sorts of assorted drinks - flavored water, special pop for Busches, Faygo, Ginger-Ale, and probably to the surprise of Daddy's residents, NO alcohol ;) and the name tag station for the guests. 

The Party

The calmness and brightness ended when Beth got there. Obviously, either we hadn't communicated or she hadn't listened about the whole "adult party" thing. So with Beth came Chris and their crazy gaggle of children. Riley: 7/10, he's quiet, polite, but he's on his phone. Maggie: 8/10, she's also polite, more outspoken but still in a nice way, she's cute, doesn't bug her mom. Reid: 3/10, he just gives me a weird vibe and he's rude, looks like he's about to kill something and just bad attitude, he has "the whine". Logan: 0/10, just the fact that 2 minutes after getting to our house I find him running around on our second floor is enough to lose all your points in my book. The second guests to arrive were the Larsons (the family with the boy I was supposed to meet). They apparently had also not gotten the "adult party" memo and although 3 of their children were grown, 2 were not and immediately added to the Beth children pandemonium. Of course, we couldn't hope to sequester the children in the basement as they had all brought white elephant and ornaments to exchange.... The other guests began arriving - the Hill Family, the Majeskies, the Shurtleffs, the Spencers, the Barneys, 3 of Daddy's residents with significant others- all who came nicely dressed for an ADULT party. Mommy soon set the rule that anyone under 29 years old couldn't sit on the couches, since all the children now present could and were filling all the cushy seats in our home. 

After everyone arrived, and somewhere around 30 people were in our home, we announced the plans for the evening (the exchanges to come) and invited everyone to eat! The name-tags mentioned before were to help spur conversation - there were people from Chelsea, Northville, Daddy's work, etc. so the name tags were to know everyone's names and everyone wrote one thing that people could ask about and they could talk about to get to know one another. Sadly, the roast was still not ready and was not enjoyed by most of our guests, but it actually ended up being good for us cause that roast is AMAZING and we have been enjoying it for like... the past 3 days. Anyway, we invited everyone to eat, since no one had touched the food for the first 30 minutes that the party had been happening. I don't even know how long it was before we started the exchanges, between the good food and good company, it was an easy hour to an hour and a half of eating and talking. 

The Exchanges

The ornament exchange was the first to go, unfortunately, not tons of people participated, so it was basically just our family, Beth and her kids, the Larson family, and a few other people, which made it kinda awkward, but it was still fun! And at the end of the night, someone had forgotten the ornaments Mommy had bought to the exchange, so we came out of it with some cute stuff!

The white elephant was quite an event, some of the highlight gifts (there were a LOT that were really great) were some Mary Kay and Clinque products, face masks, a tie, Gucci gloves and clutch, 6 rolls of reversible wrapping paper, our games we dug out from the closet, a four bottle set of nice soaps, a hydro flask, panera gift card and mug etc. The list just keeps going. And thankfully, even with around 40 people playing, it still went at a nice pace and I think everybody came out of it with some nice stuff. After that, most people started trickling out the door. And because Mommy is a perfect party planner, we had new Tupperware in which each person could collect and cookies home. It was such a great mix of people - Daddy's residents were super nice and funny, Mommy's friends are all classy and super nice, Beth had a great time and the Larson's were nice if not a little cliquey in their family. Once people started leaving the guy who I was supposed to meet (which didn't happen because he was literally inaccessible the entire night - behind his sisters, in the corner with no seats around him, it was ridiculous) started playing the piano. No-holds-barred me went over (after asking Mommy if it was appropriate) and asked if he wanted to play Christmas music. He was a decent player and we had a fun time all singing and or playing a few songs together. Then in #OMKV99 fashion, Hannah and I played some musical numbers and had everyone crying cause you know, gotta remind everyone what christmas is really about ;) Then we sang some more before the Larson's headed out. 

The Barney's, who had been the only people on the invited list we didn't know for sure were coming, ended up being the last ones there. Hannah and I both know their oldest son Layton who ended up sticking around with his parents and Mommy, Daddy and I all love the Barney parents. Brother Barney had literally just gotten done flying for Delta at the Detroit airport and drove straight to our house, so he was the first to enjoy our pork roast that had been hidden most of the night. It was honestly the only thing left to eat. I swear, it was like the grinch had flown through out house, the clean up was just washing dishes and dusting crumbs off the counter. There were some drinks and the pork roast and that was IT! So, the Barneys stayed for another hour and a half, chatting, eating and just having a good time. 

I have to say, the party was an AMAZING! Mommy and I pulled it off amazingly. It was definitely a group effort and we gave a GREAT party to a bunch of people we love. Seriously, we don't throw parties a lot, but when we do, they're the best ones of the season :) Merry Christmas Mommy, thought this would be a good gift on top of the ones I bought :)