Five Tips To Make Holiday Entertaining Go Smoothly

Thank you BabbleBoxx for sponsoring this post.  All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Do you do any entertaining for the holidays? Maybe you host family for Thanksgiving or have friends over for a Christmas party?  No matter what the occasion, holiday entertaining for family or friends can be overwhelming if you aren't prepared.  

We recently received a BabbleBoxx that was full of all sorts of entertaining goodies to help us prepare for holiday entertaining. Today we're sharing a round up of five ways to make holiday entertaining go smoothly. 

1. You know nothing gets the party started like some holiday cheer! Having a variety of wines already opened and out for guests to enjoy and pass around will allow your guests to feel more at home and you to be able to enjoy their company without feeling the need to cater to their every need. Our favorite lately has been Rodney Strong Wines from Sonoma County. Having both a red and a white options available for guests is always a good idea. We went with the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Chardonnay as crowd pleasers! 

2. Easy appetizers and snacks on hand prior to a meal is key!  Everyone wants to have something to munch on and we love yummy nuts as an easy no-prep option. You might just need a game day snack or you might want to make an appetizer board before a meal.  These Frank's Red Hot Almonds are a must! They are made with Frank's Original Hot Sauce and California Almonds so there are no artificial colors or flavors. They take boring almonds and turn them up a notch with the perfect blend of flavor and heat!

3. Whether you are cooking an entire meal or just prepping a few side dishes, when it comes to having guests we like things to be as streamlined as possible. I don't know about y'all, but if a recipe calls for too many ingredients I tend to shy away from it.  The easier the better and we've found the ultimate cooking hack! Dorot Gardens are pre-portioned herbs, garlic, and onions ready to be added to any dish with no peeling or chopping.  Their products are harvested fresh and flash frozen within 90 minutes to ensure freshness. Crushed Garlic, Crushed Ginger, Chopped Basil, and Chopped Parsley are just a few of the pre-portioned options they offer. 

4. Everyone loves the favorite sitcom Friends, and this new book combines a cookbook with entertaining tips for Thanksgiving and the holidays. Friendsgiving: The Official Guide to Hosting, Roasting and Celebrating with Friends by Shoshana Stopek not only shares recipes, but also entertaining tips and activities.  This would make a fun gift for any of your friends who love to entertain or for yourself to help with preparations for hosting! 

5. Ending the night with something sweet is a must! These Dewey's Cookie Thins are baked in a southern hometown bakery in Winston-Salem, NC. They are made with real ingredients, no artificial flavors and no preservatives.  The Sugar and Ginger Spice cookie thins are perfect for serving, but the adorable tubes are perfect for adding a bow to and sending home with your guests as a little gift. You can shop HERE and use code: DEWEYS10 to get 10% off site-wide November 10-December 10. 

What are some of your holiday entertaining tips and tricks?  Share them with us in the comments! 

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S'mores Board Birthday Party Idea

Planning a birthday party over the past year has proven to be a difficult feat. With pandemics and quarantines and social distancing and everyone on different levels of comfortability - birthday party planning requires a certain finesse. Mostly because while kids understand that this year is "different", they still want to do a celebration of some sort for their big day. And we can't blame them. 2020 needed all the happy it could get. 

I love that drive by parties were super popular in the beginning of the year and over the course of the Summer. The Summer also lent for small pool gatherings and outside parties to occur. But now that temps are cooler - Winter birthdays prove a little tricker to plan. 

I thought I would quickly share this idea that L.C. came up with for her birthday. She turned 7 at the end of October and girl wanted to celebrate. All on her own she came up with the idea of having a s'mores party. 

No cake. No candles. A way to stay warm, but still be outside. A way to physically distance but still be social. For photos I took a few things out of the packages, but for the most part food could stay individually packaged as well. 

| Bites on A Board Charcuterie Board | S'mores Sticks |

 I remembered a few years ago Carrie Beth and I created a s'mores bar, and how easy it was. 

(Side note: If you haven't tried a s'mores made with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup you haven't really lived!) 

| Happy Everything Black Dot Cube | Happy Everything Party Hat Attachment | Gold Foil Napkins |

It was the easiest little party to create and everyone had a great time putting together their own s'mores concoctions. 

I ordered these super long bamboo s'mores sticks so that even our tiniest of guests that stopped by would be safe. They worked so well that I ordered another pack to have on hand for whenever we get the fire pit going and the kids want a s'mores on the fly. 

It was such an easy and fun birthday party idea, that I think even when we get beyond all these Covid days I'll use it again. 

Have you had to plan a pandemic birthday? What have been some of your favorite ideas that you have seen to still be able to celebrate safely? 

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How To Host a Supper Club

Every year on the blog we used to share a few goals for the year...anything from reading more, completing house projects, making time for ourselves, etc. One of mine a few years ago was to host friends/family for dinner at our house. I love hosting, but our busy lives just made it hard to find time to do it so that is one goal that didn't really get accomplished that year. 

It may have taken me a few years, but now I finally have a good thing going.  I feel so lucky to have some amazing girlfriends who felt the same way I did so we decided to start a supper club.  It has been THE BEST THING for all of us.  

Once a month we pick a date, call our sitters, and make time to get together without our kids.  We dress up, we set pretty tables, we drink good wine, we eat amazing food, and we laugh into the wee hours of the night.  

Our supper club is something we all look forward to every single month. We've all grown to be very close and these are the friends we do life with. We vacation with these friends, we have a constant text thread going, and our kids are all friends. They hate feeling left out when we go to "the club" but I feel very strongly that time away from the kids is SO good for the soul. 

I know several friends who are also a part of supper clubs and everyone has their own rules, but I thought I would share how we do it: 

Pick a date. 

Unlike some supper clubs that plan to meet the 3rd Saturday of every month regardless of who is available, we pick a date as a group when we know that everyone can attend. You know that old saying is true the more the merrier and honestly we would all have major FOMO if we couldn't make it. 

Set a menu. 

You could decide to divide up the dishes to be prepared and let everyone bring something, but we've decided to let one person do all the work.  Sure, it is a lot on each couple when they are prepping for their month, but it sure is nice for the other couples who can just show up and enjoy the night. Plus, everyone takes a turn so it all works out. 

Buy lots of wine and cocktail ingredients. 

It's a given that the wine consumption will probably exceed what you are expecting it to always get more than you think you'll need. We always plan ahead and Uber! 

Set a pretty table. 

It's so fun to have a reason to pull out your pretty dishes. You know all the things that you don't use on a day-to-day basis, but that you have hidden in your cabinets for the special occasions. Well this is it!  Dust off the china and use it! 

Dress up.

Especially these days finding reasons to put on something other than leggings and sweatpants are far and few between. Dressing up isn't required, but I like to have a reason to dress up and it helps make everything feel a little more fun and festive when you dress for the occasion. 

We hosted the last supper club and we had a fun surprise for our friends. The Mr. had recently gotten THIS griddle for his birthday and we had been putting it to good use.  We did a hibatchi night for the kids one night and they loved it. I immediately knew that would have to be our next Supper Club meal! 

After all of our friends arrived and were enjoying some appetizers the Mr. came in dressed, in character and ready to entertain. I even got him a chef hat to complete the look. 

He put on a good show complete with the egg roll trick, flipping shrimp into the air for friends to catch, and the famous onion volcano! 

It was SUCH a hit and SUCH a fun night.  Everyone not only loved the entertainment, but the food was really good, too!  

We ended the night with fortune cookies and that was the icing on the cake. It was fun (and easy) to have a theme for the night so I might just have to come up with another one for our next time to host! 

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