The Second Bi-Annual Season's First Christmas Party!

Finally have a chance to write down all the craziness that was our Christmas party, as Jeremiah is here with me in the van, taking a nap. Well, actually, he just woke up, so I may continue this from inside the house, but here we go!

Saturday night, we had our Christmas party, and boy what a crazy time! Total, we had 37 people attend, 11 of which were kids! We were supposed to start at 4:30, but that was delayed by a few minutes (because of our guests--everyone decided to be fashionably late, which was just fine with me! Those that were on time were such a great help in getting things all set up, so thank you to them!!) My parents had come over early to help with last minute things, and it's a good thing they did! About an hour before the party, Jeremy discovered that the keg he had bought was FLAT! So he had to take it back to Total Wine, which left me down a person to help. Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa were more than willing to help finish cooking and decorating.

Food wise, I went a little nuts, like I usually do, though everything on the menu was made in advance and needed little time to prepare on the day-of. For savory items, I made Scallion & Egg Pancakes (tasted like the scallion pancakes from the chinese restaurants--the egg was barely noticeable, which was what we were going for. After all, it was only to be a vessel to keep the scallions in place.), Chicken Quesadillas, Crudities with Hummus, Cheese & Crackers, Chickety-China the Chinese Chicken Wings, and my Mom made Stromboli. Mmmm.... Desserts, we had Magic Cookies (7-layer bars), "Fire-starter Bars" (Orange & Nut Bars), Peppermint Mocha Brownie Balls, double chocolate brownies, lime coconut snowballs, and my Mom made cranberry bars. I had spent all day worrying that we would run out of food, and at the end of the party, everyone was stuffed, and there was PLENTY left! We'll be eating scallion pancakes and quesadillas for a while.... Thankfully, we were able to give some desserts away, and Jeremy took a bunch to work, but there's still a lot left... I froze some, so we'll have those throughout the holiday season.

Here're a few highlights:

~We set up the spare room upstairs with all of Jeremiah's toys, and a couple of mattresses--by 5p.m., all the kids were up there, running back and forth on the mattresses as if they were a moon bounce! It was quite a sight to see!

~One of our guests came in, said, "Hi, Jess, how are you, thanks for inviting me, I just locked my keys in my car. Hopefully someone here has AAA." lol I thought he was kidding at first, but then he walked up with his cell phone an a AAA card, and asked if I would help give the guy directions.... Guess he was serious. :-) This same guest later went on to win a consolation prize for having his gift stolen the most during the Yankee Swap, and then proceeded to leave both his gift and prize here at the house. :-) We gave it back to him so if he was leaving it on purpose, HA HA! :-)

~We had a few gift cards going around the swap--two of them iTunes, one for $15 and one for $25. I think those two got stolen almost every turn--someone would steal the $25, and then that person would steal the $15, and then the next person would steal the $25 from the first person, and so on and so forth. Pretty funny stuff. I think most people left with something they were happy with, so that worked out well!

~Of course, video game madness ensued after the party was over. Jeremy was challenged to a Guitar Hero showdown, and while he played to the crowd pretty well, I think he missed the mark on scoring higher than his opponent. Stephin then stepped in for the GH pwn-age.

And that was that in a nut shell. Thanks to everyone who came, and extra thanks to those of you who brought us a bottle of wine, cookies, or other gifts! They're very much appreciated, and meant a lot, so thank you! And hopefully, we'll see you all at next year's Semi-bi-annual Seasons First Christmas Party--or whatever it'll be called. :-)