In the beginning...our first party

Recently my mom told me I should catalog all the parties we've hosted.  I've definitely learned a lot in the last few years and I am happy to share some stories as well as some tips and tricks we've learned along the way.  Many thanks to the friends and family who were patient with us as we learned (and are learning) the art of entertaining.

"Let's start at the very beginning....a very good place to start"

--Maria Van Trapp, The Sound of Music

David and I moved into our first home just before Ethan was born.  A few months later it was Christmas and we thought it would be a nice time to host a little get-together at our home to get to know the neighbors.

Our invitations were very simple:

I remember fretting about whether or not to ask people to bring something.
We left it open-ended and a little vague: "Feel Free to bring your favorite holiday treat."

I also fretted about the food.  

We ended up making seven different kinds of popcorn: carmel, peanut butter, jello, chocolate, parmesan cheese, popcorn snack mix, and white chocolate. We also made a trifle--don't ask me how popcorn and trifles go together?  Our guests also brought treats.

I laugh when I look at this picture because we didn't give a whole lot of thought to serving dishes.  We used some wood bowls from our wedding, glass serving trays, and a large silver platter we bought on our honeymoon.  It was certainly a hodgepodge.  The decorations were limited to our bare-bones Christmas decor.

It snowed that night, and I fretted that no one would come, but come they did!
We had almost all our neighbors there; The Criddles, Hunsakers, and Rasmussens, as well as the Lewis  family and the Utleys.

We didn't have any entertainment other than the opportunity to talk with each other.
In it's purest form, this party was about getting to know our neighbors.

 There would be other parities and many of these same neighbors would come, but for this party I still feel a great sense of gratitude that they would take time out of their busy Christmas season to visit with the new kids on the block.