Christmas Party; Part 2

Morning of the party and I need to get going.  But first, I need a full belly.  Yogurt, peaches and Honey Bunches of Oats cereal.  A big bowl.  It will be a long day. 

Yesterday the table I'll use for food got it's table cloth.  The big serving dishes came out and got washed.  This morning the table which will be for beverages needs to get set up and a few more food items prepared. 

Ham and Cheese Spread
2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sour cream
2 T. dry onion soup mix
1 c. fully cooked ham, diced
1 c. shredded Tillamook medium cheddar
1/4 c. chopped fresh Italian parsley

Combine all but the last ingredient and shape in a ball.  Roll the ball in the parsley.  Get it really cold.  Serve with crackers, veggies or whatever.

I bought a veggie and dip tray from the deli and transferred it to my own service dishes.  Saves on cleaning and cutting and can actually be cheaper depending on how you do it.  Added green and black olives.  There is crackers and pita bread cut in 8ths.

I made a bundt cake late in the day.  The one with a box devils food cake mix, a big box of chocolate pudding mix, a sack of whipped cream mix, water, oil and 4 eggs.  I'm not proud of this, but that's what happened.

The whole shrimp cocktail thing is there for me to resolve every year.  There is horseradish in cocktail sauce.  I don't use horseradish in anything else.  The choice:  (1) buy prepared cocktail sauce, or (2) buy horseradish and make cocktail sauce with the left over horseradish going to waste.  I decided to buy cocktail sauce.

Kid Punch
One tube of frozen condensed pineapple juice.  One large thing, I guess that's 2 litters, of Sprite, and quart of orange sherbet into the punch bowl. It is sweet and gets foamy on the top.  One of those once a year things.  This was my mom's recipe.  Their celebrations were modest because of budget, but these little treats are the things we remember, anyway. 

There were some adult beverages consumed but everyone used good judgement.  I have had years when this was a problem.  People, when you go to your bosses' house, don't get drunk.  Just saying.

Oh, and I kept most of the meatballs with Josh's sauce in the warming drawer of my oven and transferred them out in batches so they stayed hot.  There's like three left after everyone left. A treat for husband for later.  If you have a chance to buy a new oven, make sure it has a warming drawer.  I use mine for something almost ever day.

 

This dog goes to work with us every day.  Husband makes sure he is loaded up in a truck headed that way in the morning and headed home at night, so everyone knows this dog.  He was sure to stay close and watch out for any food that got dropped.

I tried to circulate and talk to all of the wives. Hear anything they wanted to say to me.  I'm not a real social person and sometimes have trouble with small talk, but I think that they need to know who we are and that their husband is well thought of.  I heard my Husband doing the same.

The children got a bit rowdy, but Step Son and our Foreman stepped in and handled it

I went to bed just as soon as eveyone not directly related to me left.  Husband and Step Son stayed up.  They hadn't had much to drink.  I think that may have changed after I went to bed.  Then, during the night, the bedroom door opened.  The dog laid his big head on the edge of the bed near my head and Husband was there.  I'll have some clean up in the morning, but until then...

Remember to surround yourself with good but not perfect people.