I see what you guys mean by the time, but there are reasons why I chose the odd time. Every time I'm invited to something it's usually between 1 and 3, so I figure that is what the people I'm inviting are used to doing. Only one kid coming and she does not do any extra-curricular activities. I live about 45 minutes from almost everyone in our family and circle of friends and would hate to have a late party then they have to leave early just to drive home. I know all of them very well and they are not night owls like I am, so I'd rather them come at an odd time than not be able to come at all. This was the biggest reason for the 3PM party. I have changed my mind about the paella (thanks for the info I did not consider before). It's way too much work and too expensive for so many. I'm going with Italian and I'm having it catered. I'm making everything except the main dishes. I figure a couple hours of appetizers and drinks and then an early dinner plus dessert and birthday cake. I'm still planning so thanks for all the input. It helps out a lot !!

My brother and 2 sisters and I had a blast planning my mother's 70th birthday party. We come from a very corny family that loves to sing together so keep that in mind when reading what we did. We all dressed the same--light green tops and white bottoms. Kids, spouses and grandkids. Why? Because we did a skit. It was fashioned after a Bill Cosby Show episode and was called, "When Mom Was my Age." It took quite a bit of research. We lined up oldest to youngest and stepped forward one by one to say, When Mom was my age the year was 1980. Ronald Regan had just been elected president for the first time, Charlie's Angels was the number one show on TV (here my sisters and I adopted the Charlie's Angels huddle with guns that's their 'trademark'), and a gallon of gas cost $1.10. Then the next youngest (my sister) stood forward. At one point we all hummed the theme from Star Wars, another point we all did the Hustle. We tried to get as much sound and movement into each person's fact recitation as possible. Each of us said 2 facts about the times and ended with the cost of a gallon of gas. It took a lot of prompting to get our 4 year old neice to say her lines at the end (a gallon of gas was around 24 cents) but the whole thing was a big hit. We also did a Powerpoint presentation to music. My mother's childhood photos to In My Life by the Beatles, her early married life to What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, pictures of us growing up, getting married, the grandchildren to Through the Years by Kenny Rogers. On the tables we had small Hershey candies with computer made wrappers with photographs. For favors, each guest got a larger sized Hersey Bar with a photo of them with my mother at some point in life with the words, Thanks for sharing Connie's birthday. The table numbers were made from an enlarged black and white photo of her from a beauty pagent in her early 20's. We glued them to foam board, secured them to bases and put them out like a large paper doll holding a number and stood one on each table. My parents taught us songs to sing in the car for long rides. My siblings and I did a corny rendition of Down By the Old Mill Stream with fake moustaches after a funny story about how my father dealt with us in the car. My SIL made a big scrapbook with contributions from all the party guests. It took her over 6 months to gather the photos, stories and rememberences from everyone. My husband, a radio DJ, was MC and kept the day flowing smoothly. All in all, we had a terrific time. Everyone was entertained, well fed and my mother still brings the party up when we're together. She says she watches the DVD of the party every once in awhile, too.

Brunch party is done and it went beautifully :) It was a housewarming party of sorts as none of our friends had seen our house after we finished the remodel and moved in. Thanks to all of you in the cooking forum, the food was amazing. Like any good party, we packed some to-go goodies and have some left overs for us to enjoy over the week. Here is the final menu and how it worked. Scones a la Ann_t -- I made blueberry, raspberry and orange cranberry. Baked last night and served warm today after reheating in the oven. These were awesome and hugely popular. Baked oatmeal from Mabelgeldine's recipe with bananas, blueberries and walnuts. This was great and we have some leftover for this week. Yeasted waffles (marion cunningham's recipe that Ann_t posted a while back). I tripled the recipe and the batter doubled a couple of times and I had to beat it down. I finally refrigerated it late last night. The waffles were great. I served with sliced strawberries, whipped cream and maple syrup. My batter is never as runny as the recipe says. I did add 3/4 cup extra flour as described for the Belgian waffle. I may try with less next time. DD made Ina Garten's rosemary potatoes. She woke up early to cut 5lbs of red, white and purple baby potatoes. We used some rosemary springs from the garden, salt, freshly ground tellicherry peppers and whole cloves of garlic with the skin. Baked in the steam oven and it turned out great. DD who is 8 was really thrilled with her first party dish being a hit. Fritatta - I read many recipes and finally adapted a couple to make a baked version in my all clad lasagna pan. This turned out really delish. I used 18eggs, a cup or so of milk, a 1/4 cup of cream, 1 cup grated gruyere, about 8 tbsp of goat cheese. Seasoned the custard with minced herbs (marjoram, thyme, basil, italian parsley), truffle salt and some grinds of pepper. Sautéed minced shallots, thinly sliced asparagus, 1red bell pepper. Seasoned with salt and pepper and some of penzeys granulated garlic and Fox run seasoning. Layered the sautéed veggies, poured the custard. Arranged slices of tomatoes on the top from the garden (San marzanos, yellow pears and red cherries), dotted with the goat cheese. Baked in the steam oven at 360 for 35 minutes. It was polished off. Definitely something I will repeat and experiment with again. Fruit salad with a dressing of agave, lemon juice, mint. Brownie bites for dessert. Fresh orange juice and apple juice rounded up the menu. We decided to skip the alcohol this time :)

I'm with Judi! I need a pre-hug because I am SOOO dreading the whole thing. Hubs is going out east to spend the holiday with his kid and grandkids. I am totally FINE with that, there's not really room for me in the house, and I don't want to take the risk of covid exposure for me and my 90 year old Dad. I don't usually enjoy long visits there anyway, it's a chaotic household so really best if we keep visits short and sweet. Hubs wants to spend a lot of time there, so he'll be happy and I'll be happy. I really can't be away from my Dad for a long, long time anyway, particularly far away. So I would really love and enjoy a quiet holiday ALONE. But on the downside, I will have to be around my Dad, who takes every opportunity to be miserable and remind everyone why they should be miserable, and make issues about things that aren't issues. He'll spend the whole time lamenting that we are "alone" on the holiday, because I guess I am just chopped liver. He'll revisit every death and estrangement and person who ever spent the holidays with us and isn't there. He'll claim he has no appetite and doesn't feel like eating whatever I make, complain that I made too much, and the only thing worse would be if I didn't do anything. He's clinically depressed and refuses any treatment for it. Which is fine, but he needs to make everyone around him miserable too. Oh, and he has a lovely invitation to spend Christmas with his godson, but insists that I have to come too. I don't want to go due to covid exposure and besides I don't even want to go, it's a long drive. They are lovely people but I would prefer seeing them at a time that is less pandemic complicated. But if my Dad wanted the whole Hallmark Christmas scene he could have it there. But he insists on me going, even though I really really don't want to. Frankly having him gone would give me some much needed rest, but he refuses to take that easy route. So now he's off in search of some public party and gathering at Christmas, Lord knows why he feels like he has to do that. I guess a little covid or flu risk is the way to go. We live in a very high transmission area. So I'm just dreading the whole affair because no matter what I do, it will be wrong/bad,/problematic. Hubs and I are having vegetarian lasagna for our Christmas dinner before he leaves. Not sure what else I will make. Probably just a salad and maybe some cranberry pistachio biscotti and tea if I can get the darn things made in time . . . Dad and I will be having cornish hens, sweet potatoes and wild rice pilaf, with an apple bundt cake for dessert. If I don't feel like fussing I might just make a small apple coffee cake in a square pan instead. I love my apple bundt cake but it takes five thinly sliced apples in layers so it's a lot of work. Or I might make cranberry cherry cobbler, that's always easy peasy but also impressive.