On the 5th day of xmas my true love gave to me…

being hostess with the mostess.

I just finished throwing a holiday party for 18 college students.  It was crazy with 3 lasagnas, 1 pound of pasta, mounds of salad, 5 loaves a bread and 3 apple crisps to be made.  Also we needed to be able to squeeze 18 people into our apartment and fit them comfortably to eat.  With that came some winter cleaning and some creative storage ideas in order to get our apartment ready for the party.  My husband was right there by myself asking if he could help, salvaging the hard 5 loaves of bread, peeling 6 pounds of apples, moving air conditioners into storage rooms, cleaning up our messy apartment before the next round of eating commenced.  Seriously it takes a team to pull off a party like this and I am so lucky to have a great team member and partner and crime.  He kept saying that I did all the work-but truly he doesn’t give himself enough credit.  He helped me out so much this weekend and we had fun while doing it.  We both high fived each other at the end of the night, poured ourselves a glass or red wine and said well at least we know we could one day host a holiday party for our family.  I am so thankful for my own personal hostess with the mostess–love you!

Some things we learned while creating this festivis occasion…the more you prepare before hand the more you can relax and be stress free the day of {sounds simple but takes planning}, buying 5 loaves a bread a week before the event and not freezing them was not the brightest idea, oven ready lasagna noodles was the best invention ever, buying veggie platters is a great way to save time when making a salad for a ton of people, making a homemade dessert always wins any guest over, when you think you have enough food buy one more container {leftovers are never a bad thing but not having enough food is seriously a party disaster!}, you can never have enough bowls around the house, we need more chip and dip platters in our house, have everything ready prior to the guests arriving so you can enjoy the time at the party instead of working in the kitchen the entire time, clean as you go along leaves for a peaceful ending to a party, sit back and enjoy what you took all day/weekend/week to create–have fun! In my dream world an island in my kitchen to have a buffet laid out and 2 refrigerators and 2 stoves wouldn’t be so bad either!

my ultimate holiday party set up