Party time

Bella and I were the first ones up this morning. Everyone else was recovering from the party we had last night which didn't break up until almost 11:00. We had the pleasure of hosting thirteen members of my family as we celebrated the birthdays of my dear husband (34th) and brother (51st). The day and night before the party were full of activity as we cleaned the house (a "company" clean versus the normal "family" clean) and prepared the food - buffalo chicken bites, scallops wrapped in bacon, homemade salsa & guacamole, spinach & artichoke dip, and fresh fruit. When you add that to the devilled eggs, nachos, beef bulgogi, and mini hot dogs in sauce that other family members contributed I think we can rest assured that nobody left here hungry. Oh, I almost forgot the most important food - the birthday cakes! We usually order all the birthday cakes for the family from the same guy who made my wedding cake thirteen years ago (that was actually for our renewal of vows ceremony, we had already been married for one and a half years - another post for another day!), but I wanted to do something different this time. I made two brownie bottomed cheesecakes, and for those family members who don't like cheesecake (incomprehensible to me, but I know for 0ne my dear Kylie doesn't) I made a whoopie pie cake. As it turns out most everyone was so fascinated by the whoopie pie cake that even those who had cheesecake wanted a little slice of that to accompany it.

I absolutely love family parties. It helps that we have such a great family. We all live within about ten minutes of each other and there is no better time to be had then when we all gather together. Our house was loud last night, filled with conversation and laughter, the giggling shrieks of children (mine) as their older cousins chased and tickled them (and pleas of "tickle me again, tickle me again!!" as soon as they stopped), Bella's coos as she realized with delight that she had a larger audience to play to, our house was filled with the sounds of love. The neat thing about our family is we love each other because we're family, but we truly like each other too. Even the "in-laws" that we've picked up along the way fit in nicely. None of them came from families like ours so for each of them there was somewhat of an adjustment period. Now if someone were to walk into one of our parties I'm not sure they could tell the in-laws from the rest of us, we blend together that well.

Some of my best memories from childhood are family parties. My Mom was the youngest of nine children, so there was no shortage of aunts, uncles, and cousins at our parties. My earliest memory from childhood is being at a party in a playpen and my Uncle Joe climbing in with me. I also remember parties held at the restaurant that my Uncle Joe ran for many years where my brothers and my cousins would actually throw me back and forth across the kitchen to each other (I loved every minute of it!) - ahhhh, the good old days! The parties of my youth were like the parties we have now, filled with good natured teasing, laughing, story-telling, and lots of love. I hope that someday my children will look back on our parties and remember them fondly as well