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Host a New Years Eve Potluck

December 17, 2009 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment
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confettiBring your family and friends together on New Years Eve with a potluck dinner. Each household can contribute something when you have a potluck dinner. That way, the responsibility of the food is not on just one person or family.

If you are fortunate enough to have other members of your family around, plan a potluck dinner to bring in the New Year. Begin by setting your plan in motion.

Start with the planning. Find a time when everyone can meet to hash out the details. You can come up with a menu together and then divide it into parts so that each household knows what they are bringing. Begin with what you may already have in your home. If anyone has paper goods, sodas or the makings of a dish, that will save money.

Set the time. Keep in mind that family members may have other activities planned for the evening. Usually earlier is better. Decide which family will host the dinner. You can rotate each year so that no one is missed.

Pre-dinner fun – Bring everyone together an hour or two ahead of time to spend quality time together. One activity that gets everyone up and on their feet is interactive video games. Anyone have a Wii in the house? Playing a game like Guitar Hero or Super Smash Bros. Brawl will fuel the appetite.

Don’t forget the card games. Families can have a great time playing Hearts, Rummy and Spades. For the kids, there’s Old Maid, Go Fish and Uno to name a few. Make it interesting and play for a golden prize of candy or small change.

Potluck – What are you serving that smells so good? Set up a table where everyone can serve themselves buffet-style. To avoid a messy rug or floor, place drinks in the kitchen on the counter along with cups and a bowl of ice. Using paper products makes clean up easy for the hosting family.

If you live in the south, no New Year’s meal would be complete without the traditional foods that may bring good fortune in the year to come. These include black-eyed peas for wealth, pork for prosperity and cornbread for gold.

Dessert will put the finishing touches on your potluck meal. Each family can bring their own offering for the after-dinner treat to add variety. The taste of these endless treats will give a sweet touch to your New Year celebration.

Post-dinner fun – Before everyone gets away, try this activity. Go around the room and let each person tell one thing that they would like to accomplish in the New Year. Now, your family can help encourage you to meet that goal over the next twelve months.

A potluck dinner is a great way to get friends and family together to ring a New Year. Have some food, some laughs and make new memories that you can treasure for a lifetime.

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Advanced Planning For Mother’s Day

April 21, 2009 By The Recipe Mom 1 Comment

flowerheartsMother’s Day is quickly approaching us. Instead of a well planned day some of us hastily throw something together, right? This includes grabbing the last card on the shelf and giving her toast with peanut butter for breakfast. This can be avoided this year with a little planning in advance. Below are just a few tips to get things going.

Buy your Mother’s Day card early. You can even make her a card with your own special poem in it. Make sure you do this early. You will want the card to sound sincere, not just thrown together at the last minute. Make sure that everyone that needs to signs the card.

If you are going with flowers you will want to pick them out early. This will also help if you plan to have them delivered. If this isn’t done in advance the florist may not have time at the last minute to get them there on the appropriate day.

Purchase the perfect gift. Allow enough time for shipping and delivery if you are ordering online or over the phone. Next you will want to pick out pretty wrapping paper or a pretty gift box. This will get your package ready to give to your Mother.

If you plan to cook your Mother a meal, get the ingredients from the grocery store ahead of time. This will ensure that you won’t get caught without a key ingredient at the last minute.

Are you planning to make Mom a coupon book that she can redeem throughout the year? If so, make sure that you get it done and printed early.

Thinking of taking Mom to a movie, play or concert? These tickets need to be purchased in advance. On special occasions it will be hard to get tickets at the door.

Notify all of the people that you have invited to share this Mother’s Day with you. This will give them advance notice and you will know how many people to expect. Make sure that your camera has extra batteries, for keeping these memories.

Are you treating your Mom to a day at the salon or spa? Make these appointments ahead of time. Will you be going out for the evening? Plan ahead for a babysitter, you are probably not the only ones who will need a babysitter for the night. If you wait until the last minute you might just be out of luck.

Make sure to make any reservations early. This includes restaurants, if you will be eating out, airline and hotel reservations if you plan to travel. If you will need a car be sure to make this reservation ahead of time as well.

The most important thing to remember is to always plan ahead. If this means putting reminders on your calendar, your cell phone or anywhere that will trigger your mind to remember that you need to do some important planning. Planning these things in advance will allow you to have the best planned, less stressful Mother’s Day ever.

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