i like planning celebrations and parties
i was a bit tipsy when i made my last entry, and also still in the middle of celebrating, so i'll add a little more detail about my new year's day since i did a lot of preparing for it. bryan didn't get his check until new year's eve, so we weren't even able to buy the champagne until late in the day (because a lot of money was spent on christmas gifts)! the little money we did have left before bryan got his check went to buying me medicine because my damn cough was persistent and would not go away on its own.
so anyway, since we're not exactly early birds i'd say we didn't start all the errands until 4pm or so, so it all felt very rushed. nevermind that all the stores were closing early! i wanted to cook something for the day, and since i'm no where near good at it (and we only have basic cook ware), i chose something simple. the only recipe i found that sounded good (for our tastes) and didn't involve all sorts of ingridients and pots of different shapes and sizes was of "bacon cheese bits." they're really just finger food (like i could pull of a full meal, ha!), but it sounded good. it was good, actually, but as it turned out it seemed more like a breakfasty-type snack than a simple cocktail (which i was going for). i'm sure anyone more experienced would have figured that out from the ingridients, but whatever, the more we drank the less it mattered (we sure did finish them all!). i took pictures, but i'm not really keen on posting them since 1) i've got a growing list of pictures i haven't uploaded, if i start uploading the newer ones i'll never get to the older ones, and 2) it's really not an impressive sight to behold unless you've known me for a long time and are well aware that i once managed to burn a microwavable burrito.
i also made a dessert, but since it involved j-ello and we didn't get back home until 9pm (and you know that it takes 3-4 hours for j-ello to be finished) it ended up being for the morning after. bryan and i sliced up some fruits to look all pretty (star-shaped kiwi! but they were lop-sided because no store that was open carried cookie-cutters), then i added whipped cream as an extra topping and little hawaiian umbrellas as decoration (i know they don't fit in with a new year's theme, but they were too cute to resist). i have a picture of this too, but apparently whipped cream doesn't sit nicely for too long, so they don't look as nice as i had planned. they were yummy, though.
i mentioned before that we didn't get home unitl 9pm...we were out for a while. we spent some time at the mall, then came back home cuz i forgot the list of ingridients and ended up lingering around the house for about an hour. when we left again, most stores were closed. safeway was open, thank god, so we got all the ingredients we needed, but i had also planned to go to bed, bath & beyond for cute little dishes for the food and desserts! we had to settle for things we found at safeway. :/ i was also extremely disappointed to find no new year's party favors!! where i come from (well, i come from a lot of places, but the place i lived in the longest - los angeles) you can find all the current holiday stuff at any grocery store, or even liquor stores. all the party stores were closed (though in my opinion, they should be the ones staying open longer on such holidays as these), so our only hope was target. i also wanted to go to target cuz i was sure they'd have cookie-cutters. to my surprise they had the party favors (generic, no special 2006 ones or anything, but good enough) and no cookie-cutters, but the extra drive all the way to target set us back about about 45 minutes.
i think it was worth it! we were able to make lots of noise come 12am, that's what i like. :D i also blew up like 30 balloons (and turned my finger raw from tying the knots) and spread them out on the floor, so it felt more party-like! if i had the budget i would have made them fall down from the ceiling at the strike of midnight, i guess i'll just have to save that for next time. ;D
all this gave me little time to get ready, so i didn't really watch the ball drop. i joined in in the last 30 seconds before realizing we left the champagne glasses we bought in the car, which distracted me until i realized it was 5 seconds away from the new year. it's funny how different this new year's was, usually i'm sitting down passing the time until about 11:30pm in my family's living room, but this time i never stopped until i almost missed it! lol. but after bryan went down and fetched the glasses i was able to relax and had a really good time with him (which is what i described on my last post).
anyway, i just thought it'd be nice to save away the memory of my first new year where i coordinated things on my own, minimal as they were, so that one day i can look back on it and laugh at how little i could manage back then. you see, one day i'd like to be able to host great parties--a cross between sophisticated (with cocktails and champagne or margaritas as opposed to just a barbeque), fun (not being uptight about peoples loudness, behavior, or what they get dirty), and interactive (having games or contests once in a while, but it'll be challenging to find something that everyone will have fun with since i tend to have lots of diversity in the kind of people i would want to invite). and actually, i don't consider myself particularly social so it's weird sometimes to think i want to hold parties, but i do like arranging things that people will have fun with. so if in the future i end up getting a good amount of time and money for planning my wedding reception, don't expect it to be your avarage reception! i want it to be fun for all my guests so that they always have a good, unique memory when they think of us.
alright, i jabbered on more than i originally intended to. ciao.
so anyway, since we're not exactly early birds i'd say we didn't start all the errands until 4pm or so, so it all felt very rushed. nevermind that all the stores were closing early! i wanted to cook something for the day, and since i'm no where near good at it (and we only have basic cook ware), i chose something simple. the only recipe i found that sounded good (for our tastes) and didn't involve all sorts of ingridients and pots of different shapes and sizes was of "bacon cheese bits." they're really just finger food (like i could pull of a full meal, ha!), but it sounded good. it was good, actually, but as it turned out it seemed more like a breakfasty-type snack than a simple cocktail (which i was going for). i'm sure anyone more experienced would have figured that out from the ingridients, but whatever, the more we drank the less it mattered (we sure did finish them all!). i took pictures, but i'm not really keen on posting them since 1) i've got a growing list of pictures i haven't uploaded, if i start uploading the newer ones i'll never get to the older ones, and 2) it's really not an impressive sight to behold unless you've known me for a long time and are well aware that i once managed to burn a microwavable burrito.
i also made a dessert, but since it involved j-ello and we didn't get back home until 9pm (and you know that it takes 3-4 hours for j-ello to be finished) it ended up being for the morning after. bryan and i sliced up some fruits to look all pretty (star-shaped kiwi! but they were lop-sided because no store that was open carried cookie-cutters), then i added whipped cream as an extra topping and little hawaiian umbrellas as decoration (i know they don't fit in with a new year's theme, but they were too cute to resist). i have a picture of this too, but apparently whipped cream doesn't sit nicely for too long, so they don't look as nice as i had planned. they were yummy, though.
i mentioned before that we didn't get home unitl 9pm...we were out for a while. we spent some time at the mall, then came back home cuz i forgot the list of ingridients and ended up lingering around the house for about an hour. when we left again, most stores were closed. safeway was open, thank god, so we got all the ingredients we needed, but i had also planned to go to bed, bath & beyond for cute little dishes for the food and desserts! we had to settle for things we found at safeway. :/ i was also extremely disappointed to find no new year's party favors!! where i come from (well, i come from a lot of places, but the place i lived in the longest - los angeles) you can find all the current holiday stuff at any grocery store, or even liquor stores. all the party stores were closed (though in my opinion, they should be the ones staying open longer on such holidays as these), so our only hope was target. i also wanted to go to target cuz i was sure they'd have cookie-cutters. to my surprise they had the party favors (generic, no special 2006 ones or anything, but good enough) and no cookie-cutters, but the extra drive all the way to target set us back about about 45 minutes.
i think it was worth it! we were able to make lots of noise come 12am, that's what i like. :D i also blew up like 30 balloons (and turned my finger raw from tying the knots) and spread them out on the floor, so it felt more party-like! if i had the budget i would have made them fall down from the ceiling at the strike of midnight, i guess i'll just have to save that for next time. ;D
all this gave me little time to get ready, so i didn't really watch the ball drop. i joined in in the last 30 seconds before realizing we left the champagne glasses we bought in the car, which distracted me until i realized it was 5 seconds away from the new year. it's funny how different this new year's was, usually i'm sitting down passing the time until about 11:30pm in my family's living room, but this time i never stopped until i almost missed it! lol. but after bryan went down and fetched the glasses i was able to relax and had a really good time with him (which is what i described on my last post).
anyway, i just thought it'd be nice to save away the memory of my first new year where i coordinated things on my own, minimal as they were, so that one day i can look back on it and laugh at how little i could manage back then. you see, one day i'd like to be able to host great parties--a cross between sophisticated (with cocktails and champagne or margaritas as opposed to just a barbeque), fun (not being uptight about peoples loudness, behavior, or what they get dirty), and interactive (having games or contests once in a while, but it'll be challenging to find something that everyone will have fun with since i tend to have lots of diversity in the kind of people i would want to invite). and actually, i don't consider myself particularly social so it's weird sometimes to think i want to hold parties, but i do like arranging things that people will have fun with. so if in the future i end up getting a good amount of time and money for planning my wedding reception, don't expect it to be your avarage reception! i want it to be fun for all my guests so that they always have a good, unique memory when they think of us.
alright, i jabbered on more than i originally intended to. ciao.