Christmas Party

My favorite part about the holidays? Food and presents.

Now I can add friends to that very short list.

I threw my first non-birthday party last night. A few people canceled, some people never showed but the ones that did made my night wonderful.

I had been planning this party for a few weeks. I was at work and someone asked if I was getting a Christmas tree for my apartment. I thought about it and told them that I would be the only one enjoying it, unless I had people over. It dawned on me, like a light bulb that I should have people over. I should throw a party!

I took out paper, started writing names, sent out a mass text message asking for addresses so that I could send invites. I listed all the food I could prepare and I e-mailed my Mom to borrow her perfectly sized (fake) tree. Once I got home, I made an "official" Myspace event, that I would check everyday from that date on. Not in an obsessive way, but in an I-really-hope-every-single-person-says-yes-and-I-look-really-popular kind of way.

On Friday, December 12th I realized I had no food. Frantically, I called my Mom and asked to steal borrow her car. I woke up early Saturday and started working my way through a laundry list of Things to Do:



Drivers were incompetent, it was almost impressive. Customers were rude and cashiers didn't try to hide their hatred for their jobs. Shelves were messy and in some cases empty. Children were crying while their parents ignored them. Through all this, I fought because I... I had a list to conquer.

Mistletoe was on my list, had been for about a week and a half. I called a few places and between Walmart, Michael's and Kmart, I was left on hold for an hour and a half. So, I figured I'd have better luck going to the actual store and speaking with a sales associate and if worse came to worst, I would actually look on the shelves myself.



Every store. EVERY SINGLE STORE. I walked up to an employee and recited like a script, "Hi, how are you? Do you have mistletoe?"
Every time, the reply was a firm "No."
I started getting desperate, "Fake mistletoe? Something that resembles mistletoe?"
"No."

On my phone today, I received a picture message from my friend Ainsley in Utah, showing that she found mistletoe while standing in line at a local grocery store. I tried 3 grocery stores! Maybe Philadelphia doesn't believe in tradition.

By 5:00pm, the trunk of my stolen Mom's car was full and I was exhausted. I got a burger from a fast food place and ate it while crawling home, up Columbus Boulevard.

Once home, I chopped vegetables, thawed frozen spinach (which is a story in itself, there has to be an easier way than what I've been doing), rolled pigs in their blankets and started to decorate. The party started at 9:00pm, so I calculated that if I showered around 7:30 or 8:00pm, I would be dry and dressed before people arrived. That was until two of my good friends showed up around 8:00pm.

Someone forgot to tell them about the time change.

See, I had originally planned for the party to start at 7:00pm, but I changed it about a week and a half ago to start at 9:00pm.

Oops.

They were really great sports, and they went out to look for a place to get take out beer. I jumped in the shower, petrified at this point that more people were going to show up, thinking that the party was still at 7:00pm. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Dry and dressed, I finished putting everything together.

Coffee table
Sour cream and onion chips
veggies (broccoli, carrots, red peppers, celery and dill veggie dip)
cheese (cheddar & swiss) and wheat crackers



Kitchen
Pigs in a blanket
Tomato & avocado dip
Bagel crisps
Mini spinach and artichoke pizzas



"Bar"
Spiked punch with orange slices
Pretzels
Soda (Mountain Dew, Cranberry Ginger Ale and Orange Sunkist)



People started to arrive, I started to get drunk and the food started to disappear. The night started with Home Alone, switched to Home Alone 2, then National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and the night ended around 3am after Elf.



I am so thankful for my friends who came and made my first non-birthday special. I am exhausted and broke and my feet are killing me, but it was worth it. Lessons learned? Be very clear with everyone about what time the party starts, invite more and expect less, take pictures of the guests, not just the food and lastly, have extra money saved up for a spa pedicure the next day.