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Kid-friendly tree dressed up with 100% shatterproof ornaments

^{Posted by: MandaJuice}

On Saturday night, we had our first-annual Mandajuice Christmas party and if I can be so bold as to toot my own horn (which, you know, isn't so hard being a blogger and all), it was a lot of fun.  Part of that can be attributed to my absolute LOVE for party-planning, but most of it is because we have such awesome friends and any time we get to spend with them is time well spent.

So here are some of the things that seemed to work:

1. Invite the kids!  This wasn't hard for us since pretty much everyone we've met in Washington has kids.  I think it's important to make sure people know that children are invited to your party.  And let's face it, if you have young kids, why HAVE a Christmas party if you aren't going to include them?!  We let everyone know that their kids were welcome and I could tell everyone appreciated not needing to find a babysitter.
2. As the RSVP's started coming in, I planned my menu.  We had originally planned to do a potluck, but then I forgot to put that on the invitations.  So I ended up making the food, which I enjoyed, but which was also a bit stressful.  I love to cook, but next year I'll plan to make a lasagna and let my friends help out with the side dishes.  It would've made the party a lot easier!
3. I did as much early preparation as I possibly could.  We started decorating the house two weeks before the party.  The week before the party I did everything from shopping (almost daily!) to cleaning and setting out all of my serving pieces on the buffet table.  I even used Post-It Notes to label everything so I knew which bowls were for each food.  I made the cakes and desserts two days before the party and I pre-cooked almost everything else on Friday, so all I had to do was assemble and heat the food that I served on Saturday night.
4. The day of the party I cleaned my house.  I know that seems like something I should've done in advance, but no.  The way my family is, if I had cleaned on Thursday or Friday, the house would've been a mess again long before Saturday night.  I always save the floors for last because they only stay clean for approximately 30 seconds.
5. By 3 p.m. on Saturday, I was dressed, ready and in the kitchen heating up food.  In hindsight, I wish I'd made more time to pre-mix the cocktails and sugar-rim the glasses for my pomegranate martinis.  I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the party mixing drinks when I should've been heating meatballs on the stove.  My cousin Scott ended up helping me with the meatballs, but even so, they weren't ready till at least a couple hours into the evening and by the time they were ready, everyone was already full of appetizers. Another lesson I learned was to put all the appetizers in the same room.  I had spread them out thinking that my guests would naturally move around the house to nosh, but everyone stayed in the kitchen for almost the entire party.  I had a lot of leftovers, 100% of which were foods I'd put out on the dining room buffet table.  Next time I'll serve the courses separately and in separate rooms.
6. On the kitchen table, I laid out cookies with decorating supplies so the kids would have a project.  They turned out to be a huge hit, especially the red and green marshmallows. 
7. The best thing about the party turned out to be the attendance of our friends' 10-year-old daughter.  Her name is Haley and we refer to her as "The Baby Whisperer."  The kids all LOVE her and it was basically like having a babysitter there to watch the kids.  If you don't have a Haley nearby, I highly recommend hiring a neighborhood kid to help with the kids.  They all disappeared upstairs to play and we adults all felt like we had a fabulous child-free night downstairs in the kitchen.  In hindsight, I probably should've paid her!