Tasting Time

Grant and I always try to have some kind of get together each year, but this year we decided to throw our first real holiday party.  Every good party has to have a theme so we went with a beer and wine tasting.  We asked everyone to bring either a 6 pack of beer to share or a bottle of wine while we supplied everything else.  The only rule was that it couldn't be a domestic or run of the mill beer, the point was to let everyone try something new.

The party was the first weekend of December and the weather was perfect.  The last thing we wanted was for the party to be stuffy and boring so we moved everything outside.  All of the patio furniture was moved around the fire pit and we had all of the food and drinks on the patio.  Of course part of any party has to be in the kitchen too.

Let me set the tone for you...party is to start at 7:00 and at 6:55 as I am running around the house, bossing Kari and Grant around to help me finish everything and I managed to burn my feta crustinis and the fire alarm goes off.  In true Kari reaction mode she immediately knows what to do because guess what, she has burned more than a few things in the oven.  First guests arrived at 7:10 and literally kept rolling in for the next hour and a half.

We shared appetizers, desserts, beer, wine and sangria with 25 of our favorite Florida friends.  I was really happy that there weren't any real cliques and everyone mingled.  There were lots of house tours, corn hole tournaments and just hanging out.  Next thing we knew it was 10:00 and most of the guests were gone.  Of course our Matzoballs hung out for awhile longer to entertain us or maybe it was Grant entertaining them.  By 12:30 the house was empty and I was ready to hit the sheets.

I am highly disappointed in my lack of pictures, but the night just went so fast that I forgot until the food and the people were practically all gone.  I really wish that I had taken a picture of all of the empty bottles.  I know we threw away three garbage bags of beer bottles and about 20 empty bottles of wine.

We were really happy with the turn out, it felt like the perfect amount of people.  Get ready folks, because I already know how I want to change it up for next year to make things even better.  Only 10 more months to plan!