1st Annual Holiday Sing-a-Long Party

We had breakfast and a white elephant exchange with our Ladies group this morning.

Some gift hits were a CD of hymns played on the saw.

A handbook on Menopause from the 1970's.

And Jennie giving away her Grandma and Grandpa's books, still sealed in plastic.

The rest of the afternoon we prepped for our 1st Annual Holiday Sing-a-Long party!

And spoiler alert, it was a great success!

When I say "prepped" it was mostly a little tidying, buying more drinks, and Dan making booklets of Christmas song lyrics. We didn't have to do anything with food, BECAUSE, we catered the party,

and while it was pricier than I anticipated, the enjoyment of not thinking about and evaluating and rethinking and shopping and worrying about food every day for a month was heavenly. 

As was telling everyone who asked what they could bring, "just yourselves!"

The party was from 7-10 and we had people here the whole time. 

The caterers showed up from 5:00-6:45.

Having the catering company just show up and decorate and make everything look absolutely gorgeous was the pinnacle, as was an abundance of delicious food.

And the icing on the cake, was saying goodbye to our last guest and 

walking back into a clean kitchen because the catering crew of two had everything cleaned up, 

food put away in to-go containers, counters wiped clean and trash removed!!

If that's my Christmas present forevermore, I'd be happy!

Blueberry, mozzerella & basil skewers; tri-tip with orange sesame glaze; 

veggie tray with roasted zucchini, asparagus and eggplant, tiny pickled tomatoes, celery and peppers and more spinach dip than you can imagine.

Turkey and brie sliders on almost full-size buns were much bigger than I imagined and the one thing we had LOTS leftover -- 60 of the 100.

I made cranberry, mint & applejuice/cranberry juice ice cubes that were very pretty

with water, Martinellis, Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper for drinks.

We used 36 Diet Cokes, 12 DP, 3 bottles of Martinelli's and mostly water. 

Cookies and brownies for dessert. 

We invited 52 couples (or plus-one's).

41 RSVP'd yes, 8 no, 3 were unsure.

In the end 5 who said yes couldn't come, and a few people came without partners.

We had about 70 people and it was a great number. 

No one used the dining room, as there was plenty of standing room in the kitchen and family room and places to sit in the dining room where people liked being close to the pianist.

We hired a friend of Lizzie's sister to play the piano (they played in the Utah Youth Symphony together)

and she was a huge hit. Everyone loved having a live pianist. 

And EVERYONE was great sports when we did our sing-a-long (at 8:15).

It was so much fun and many people told me how much they love singing at Christmas but we simply don't get to do it anymore.

We sang for about 30 minutes. We could have probably gone longer, but it seemed like a good idea to quit while we were ahead.

The Olympus crew (plus Steph R.!) 

And, my longest lifetime friend, Anne T. who we were so excited to see because its been a long time!

Dan and I had the best time. 

We loved mingling with friends from different groups and neighbors

and were delighted at the many connections everyone had with each other.

First Annual! All these notes are to help next year's party go equally as smooth!