| Ahead of Time | By Zelma MacDonald |
| prepare - wash, cut, clean and separate
- so they day you are preparing the food,
you have a head start. |
| Wine Cup Tags | By Alda Tuk |
| I always have wine cup tags with all the guests names so that way if they put their cup down it won't get mixed up with with the other guests. |
| Cookie Exchange Party | By Cynthia Booton |
| Time management is really important to all of us, especially during the Christmas season. I plan a cookie exchange and dinner with friends and make it the first or second week in December - before the big rush. Husbands are invited, I have an easy meal prepared, we exchange cookies so everyone goes home with a selection of great treats and we have an enjoyable evening catching up on our friendships. |
| Thanksgiving Table Cloth | By Cathy Hand |
| Begin with a white or solid color table cloth. Using a permanent marker, have each person at Thanksgiving, autograph the table cloth, with one thing they are most thankful for. The person signs and dates the autograph. Over the years it is wonderful to read the autographs and remember the events that were listed as thankful times. The table cloth becomes beautiful over the years if the permanent markers used are copper, silver, and gold. |
| Pumpkin Decorating | By Danielle Shoniker |
| Get different shapes and sizes of small pumpkins and gourds. Using white glue, paint each one at a time, sprinkling them with different coloured sparkles and let dry. With acrylic paint, paint the stems and let dry. Once complete, place together to form a nice center piece for diningroom table, side table. Simple and yet very elegant! |
| Hors d'oeuvres | By James Murphy |
| If you have a cake plate on pedistle with hollow bottom, turn over put dip in hollow bottom and use dish for hors d'oeuvres, shows well. |
| Enjoy the Party- Plan Ahead | By Rosemarie Murphy |
| Make as many things as possible ahead, have everyone bring a particular item, so you won't dupicate. Decorate and set table.
Enjoy the party. |
| Post-Thanksgiving Brunch | By Jeannine |
| Everyone has plenty of leftovers after a Thanksgiving feast. Most make soups and sandwiches with the left over turkey. Why not have a Saturday or Sunday Brunch with greenbean and turkey omeletes, Potato pancackes made with leftover mashed potatoes, and bread pudding made with the leftover bread. Add some other fresh foods and have a more casual family get together. |
| Football for the Busy Professional | By Coyote Moon |
| Go to Subway and get the party platter. Go to Costco and get the large tortilla chips, the biggest container of dip, a case of beers, and paper plates. You're all set. |
| Planning for the busy professional | By Coyote Moon |
| Hire a party planner well in advance. At least 5 months before, hire the entertainment. Invite the neighbors. Give refreshments to the nice police officers that show up. Tip the housekeepers a big tip. |
| Black | By Patricia Boyle |
| Everybody wears black; all the food has at least one black ingredient; and we play eerie music. |
| Halloween Party Decorating | By Kris |
| If you are hosting a Halloween Party make the atmosphere spooky with the usual cobwebs and spiders that are readily available at the dollar store. Make the entrance to your house more scary by redirecting guests around the side of your house to the back door. Place signs or even a fake arm that point the direction to go. In your back yard you can set up fake tombstones (made from styrofoam or cardboard) with funny epitaphs. You could even buy bags of dirt to spread infront so the graves look fresh. Don't forget to play Haloween music and noises and add garden torches to complete the atmosphere. Try drawing a crime scene chalk outline of a body on your driveway too. Bring the theme inside by placing spider webs around your house and have spiders hanging from them. If you have a punch bowl try placing coloured juice in a sergical glove and freezing it then add it in place of ice cubes to keep the punch cool. You can even make ice cubes for your ice bucket by placing small plastic spiders in the ice cube trays before freezing them. If there are any kids at your party they always enjoy bobbing for apples and being blindfolded so they can put their hand into the bowl of eyeballs and worms (peeled grapes and cold spaghetti noodles). |
| Menu | By Michelle |
| For our family Thanksgiving dinner I like to make up a menu for the dinner and frame a few copies to place on the dining table. It provides a formal element to the dinner and rouses everyone's appetite. |
