Holiday Party Fun

The past year has been a busy one. It has been filled with a lot of stress and very little rest. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had four days off. The night before Thanksgiving I sat down in my bed and completed seven homework assignments. Completing those seven assignments finalized one of my classes for me. That following Friday I completed the written test for my other class which finalized that class for me as well. The previous weekend I spent some time working ahead. All of that put me two weeks ahead of schedule for finishing school.

In honor of completing my bachelor's degree, I made plans about a month ahead of time to celebrate the holidays by having a holiday party. I had never hosted a Christmas holiday party at my house. I use to have a New Year's Day dinner at my house all of the time, but nothing for Christmas. So this would be my first time having something to celebrate the Christmas holiday.

Even though school is done, I have still been extremely busy with taking my son to his training three nights a week and this past week, it was five nights a week. The good thing about it is while he's in training, I work out. Where he trains is an hour away from our house so by the time we get home it's pretty late. So honestly, I really did not take the time to do extensive planning for the party. It was actually a few days before when I started doing any planning at all.

I decided on an appetizer menu, what to have on the menu just kind of came to me. We had Mini Chicken and Waffles w/Sweet and Spicy Maple Syrup, Chicken Skewers, Spinach and Artichoke Wonton Cups, Teriyaki Beef Bites, Chicken and Shrimp Lumpia, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Cajun Shrimp Deviled Eggs, and additional appetizers from the guests. I also made a sparkling punch with concentrated white grape juice, pink cranberry juice cocktail, and Sprite. Guests could also add some sparkling Moscato if they chose.

I kept the decor simple and inexpensive. I don't usually decorate the outside of the house but this year I did. I changed the wreath on the door to a burlap hanger that says PEACE, I picked up from Big Lots, I placed three light-up gifts boxes on the porch also from Big Lots, I hung up some plastic bells from Dollar Tree on the roof overhang of the porch and wrapped the railings in snowman garland also from Dollar Tree.

Inside I changed the tree colors to match the new decor color scheme. I decided to keep the same color scheme for the party with white and silver tableware. I kept it really basic and inexpensive with white plastic table cloths (even tho I own cloth ones), plasticware, and paper plates. I did add some shiny, grey table runners to the food tables I found at Dollar Tree at the last minute. I didn't plan on buying them, I was looking for a mat to place under the beverage dispenser and said: "why not, they're only a buck!" I'm glad I did though, I liked the look they gave the serving areas. For only a few dollars they added more pizzazz to the plain white plastic table cloths.

We had a White Elephant Gift Exchange that was based on the Left-Right Christmas Story game Suing Santa Clause, which was so much fun. Then we decided to play Cards Against Humanity which was also a lot of fun because there were a lot of people involved in the game. As always a few stragglers stay behind and we had some good conversation. The last person left a little after 2am. 

This is definitely something that I would do again because it was just a lot of fun.

And...It Is What It Is!