After hosting Thanksgiving, I was feeling {relatively} good about my ability to throw a larger dinner party. Bring on the holiday cheer! Of course, every good dinner party needs a theme. Ugly Christmas sweaters, anyone?
We actually ended up on MSN for these sweaters – nothing related to the blog, I guess MSN just throught the sweaters were seriously ugly. Haha.
Anyway, I realized yesterday morning that I was a little in over my head… I’ve just been so busy with Henry, staying on top of work, trying to fit in my workouts. The party was suddenly upon me, and I’d done very little to prep. This necessitated 35 frantic texts to my BFF Nicole begging her for menu advice. The day of the party. Whooooops. We decided the best way to handle my procrastination would be to do half-homemade and half-store bought.
And you know what? It ended up working out just fine. There was enough food, it was yummy, and everyone had fun.
For 11 people:
Appetizer: Olives and hummus + chips
Sweet potato casserole (this recipe but with less sugar and dairy-free)
Mixed greens with balsamic dressing, strawberries, and almonds
Quinoa dish, courtesy of Nicole
Macaroni and cheese, courtesy of Whole Foods
Potatoes latkes, courtesy of Whole Foods
Roasted carrots and parsnips
Roasted squash
Loads and loads of wine (drastically improving the menu, one sip at time)
Even the bebes had on ugly Christmas sweaters. Well, ugly-cute… it’s impossible for babies to look ugly in anything Christmas-themed.
The only dinner fail? I forgot the cooked squash in the fridge! I opened the fridge this morning and gasped. Awww, man.
You know what I had for breakfast…. Squash + spicy eggs + toast. And coffee!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a crawler to catch.
Lord help me.
I always buy some, cook some. Parties are supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable. Driving yourself crazy with prep defeats the purpose. Oh, and I think you guys have the tackiest sweaters of the bunch. Congrats!
Good luck with baby proofing! I’m beginning to realize that 100% baby proofing is impossible, especially once they’re mobile. They will always find a way to hurt themselves. I tried gating off an area of the house, and within 5 minutes, my baby bumped her head on the wall. She was born June 10, and my mother in-law said that babies born on a date ending with zero are injury-prone. I’m not superstitious, but I’m kind of believing it now…