New Year's Party a Success

The party about which I was preemptively freaking out the other week has come and gone. No hostesses were harmed in the making of this party, despite their fears to the contrary…

Granted, that’s most likely because of all of the fear-induced uber-anal retentive advance planning and preparation I found myself doing for the thing. Despite the fact that the general menu wasn’t finalized until a few days prior I literally started cooking more than a week before the event. Not to mention all of the painting and cleaning which occurred almost nightly for weeks in December.

Did all the work pay off? Yeah, I think it did. The party came off without a hitch. All of the food was ready and everything set up before the guests arrived, which allowed me __ to actually enjoy myself. More importantly, my guests seemed to like it. The food was well received, as was the well-stocked bar and copious selection of beverages.

What I would have done differently:

• Stocked up on more mineral water and juices. These were more popular than I expected.
• Buy less wine. There was over a case and a half left over. No, this isn’t a tragedy, but it wasn’t cheap either.
• Recognize that I don’t have to make every little piece of food that’s served (though I admit it was big fun doing so).
• Avoid being on call for work that day. Kind of a bummer, but someone had to do it.

My biggest accomplishment for the event was recognizing that I was going to be completely screwed if I tried to do everything the day of all by myself. Yes, that’s right, I actually asked someone for help. Can you believe that? Marc was a great help and didn’t mind in the least when I got very nit-picky about such stupid things as how sandwiches should be sliced and where things should be placed on the table. He earned a big ol’ merit badge that day, I tell ya.

So my first big party ended up being, IMO, a success. I’m not likely to do it again anytime soon (though considering the wine, beer and liquor that’s left over I probably should). Some recovery time is needed before I plunge once more into that particular breach. But I’m glad I did it, if only because I’ve proved to myself that I can.