How I throw a Christmas party

I LOVE to entertain – it is my joy sharing our home and having friends and family here, eating great food, drinking good drinks and laughing. Lots of laughter. :) This year, we will host three parties this month, and the first was this past weekend.

A few of my girlfriends and I get together every year for our annual ornament exchange. It’s been six or seven years now – none of can remember how many. (We’re getting old.) Since almost all of the Christmas decor is done, (except the main tree -- it just had lights, which was still beautiful), I was able to focus on my regular freak out preparation for the party.

Every time, I say to myself…”I’m not going to clean like crazy. No one will notice the dust on the table. No one will see the toys stuffed under the bed. No one will even go into most of the rooms of your home Sarah, sogetagripwoman!” Yeah. No one will know I’m super psycho and have to clean every inch. Crazy woman.

I don’t clean before the day of the party though – it’s just asking for a special dose of crazy. The little tornado in this house makes that impossible. :) So I’ve learned a trick so I can pace myself to get the house picked up impeccably clean in time for the party.

First step, send the Bub off to the ‘rents. Hubs was out of town, so it was just me. I turned up the ipod and set my timer – 20 minutes per room. I start with picking up, then vacuuming, then dusting. Once the timer goes off, I have to stop and move on.

This works for me because I’ll get lost in cleaning and keep going and going in a room if I don’t have that timer reminding me to move the heck on.

Once the cleaning is mostly done, it’s time to cook. Contrary to popular belief, I can cook. I do cook. I just don’t do it often. :) When it comes to parties, I have a few standbys that are cheap, easy and quick. You can totally make them in between dusting the family room and curling your hair:

Pinwheels

dash of pepper

2 tbsp onion

1/4 c bacon pieces

1/4 c black olives (chopped)

8 oz. cream cheese (softened)

package crescent rolls

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Take the crescent rolls and lay them out on a cookie sheet, smushing the edges together so it makes one large sheet of dough. Then just spread the mixture evenly all over:

(This picture was pre-spread.)

Then, just roll it up long ways, so it looks like this:

At this point, I like to put it in the fridge for a while so it firms up just a bit. Then, just cut it into sections, and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

YUM-O:

They are such a perfect mix of buttery roll, a teeny bit of onion and bacon flavor. Who doesn’t love bacon? Serious. Obviously you can take out or add whatever you want for your taste.

The next one is to. die. for. Do you love those cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster? Those buttery, flaky, uuuhmazing biscuits? These are from Southern Living and are so similar. And only three ingredients!

Tiny Cream Cheese Biscuits

one 8 oz. package cream cheese (softened)

1/2 c butter (softened)

1 c self-rising flour

Easiest recipe eva. Mix all ingredients with a mixer, (it will be very thick) then spoon the dough directly into mini muffin pans. Bake for 15-17 minutes at 400 degrees.

I didn’t take a picture of these because I was too busy eating them entertaining. But this is close to what they look like:

(Source)

A friend said you can make your own self-rising flour, which I didn’t know! If you want that real Red Lobster taste, just mix in some cheese, or sprinkle some on the top after they are done. They are incredible without though. Seriously, you’ll thank me. :) Heaven in a teeny little biscuit.

I found the easiest cookie recipe, and the easy is mostly because it’s the cookies you get in the package, already cut. But with a few more minutes of work, they become especially scrumptious and adorable.

Three ingredient Christmas cookies

package Pillsbury Christmas tree cookies

one tub icing (you need very little)

sprinkles

Make the cookies as directed, then let cool. Take the bottom of one cookie and ice it (I always use whipped icing and it was especially good on these!). Then place another cookie on top, making a sandwich. Push them together so the icing smushes out, then roll in the sprinkles.

We were ALL surprised at how good these were. I added red hots to the trees just for some spice, but they are not needed:

I’m not even kidding, these were SO GOOD. Makes me what to make more right this very minute. Yums.

There were only ten of us and we ended up having a TON of food (this wasn’t all of it!):

But we ate most of it. ;) The beverage of the evening was Sangria, and it is absolutely my new favorite drink. So sweet and fresh and fruity. I’ll show you how I make that after the upcoming Mexican Fiesta!

Are you hosting family and friends this month? Do you go with the flow to prepare or there others like me out there? (Please say yes.) This was the smallest of our three parties, which was a good way to start off the season. Can’t wait for the next two – I just wish they were this week, cause my house is still clean.

I’m off to eat some biscuits peeps.

Pfeffer HUH and I need HOW many cookies??

WARNING: You will want cookies after reading this. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So my other new BFF, Lori, posted at the Favorite Things party about their love of pfeffernuesse cookies. HUH? What the? I had never heard of these things, but I was intrigued to say the least. They have spices in them, as well as peppermint, but they are cookies? I say it again...HUH? I guess you love them or hate them. Well, Lovely Lori sent me some...look how sweet:

I stood there popping them in my mouth, trying to figure out if I liked them. After about 20 seconds I looked down and realized how many I had eaten:

And I decided I loved them. (Thanks Lori!!)

So my girlfriend has thrown a cookie exchange for a couple years now, and everyone votes on their favorite packaging at the end of the night. Last year, a few of us brought cookies, but one girlfriend and I said "What HUH, HOW many cookies am I supposed to bake?" And said forget that. But then we got there and realized how fun it was, how creative everybody was and decided this year, it was ON BABY!

So I was supposed to make like 30 dozen cookies this year. OK, not 30 dozen, but 12 dozen. Or something like that. I said, "What HUH?" And freaked out. But then remembered I had seen these in blogland a while back:

Easy, cheap, quick. Right up my alley. You gather the following:

Wait, I need some PfefferHuhs while I "bake":

The recipe I saw used regular kisses, but I had something else in mind. Of course I had to use my kisses of minty love instead. Just place the kiss on top of the pretzel, heat oven to 200 degrees and put them in for about three minutes, or just till they get soft. Then put M&Ms on while hot.

It was after making about eight dozen that I realized something very important:

These are not cookies. They are candy.

Whatever, really. You going to argue with me?? So I had to go a little crazy with this "recipe" and used some peanut butter cups with red hots too. These were AWESOME:

So onto the cookie contest. Check out our competition:

After standing there staring at these for about 2.4 seconds, Sister turns to us, gives us the Stink Eye and says, "Whoa, you two are SO not winning."

UH, DUH. And we thought ours were kind of cute, at least throwing-them-together-two-minutes-before-we-leave-cute:

Gah. I KNOW I KNOW, they were pitiful. Just pitiful. They were NOT the worst there though. Just sayin'...

But we have decided, we are going to start planning in February, and next year

IT IS SO ON.

For reals.

Have fun at your parties this weekend and I'll be back with some easy, cheap, last minute decorating ideas!