Cooking Like A Madwoman!

This weekend was Little Red's 6th birthday party.  So, Music Man and I spent 2 entire days getting ready for the three hour party.  Funny how that works out. But it was good because it forced us to get the half unpacked stuff all the way unpacked and hang some pictures and basically make it feel like home.  Little Red had a fun birthday party, and it was great to catch up with family again.

I spent the better part of a whole day cooking for this shindig. I made two different types of chili (white and red), corn muffins, chocolate chip coconut cookies and the cake you see above (that's my little cherub himself).  Thank the heavens it was a cool day and that the oven being on for hours didn't bother us!  I enjoyed coming up with what to serve, when to make it, all that good stuff. 

Though, entertaining many people is challenging for me.  I'm no Martha Stewart, but I do my best to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable in our home. That's very important to me, welcomeness and comfort.  We don't have the finest furniture or most up to date anything, but we do hope to always have people be comfortable in our space.  We try to be as resourceful as possible with what we have, and so it's never the finest of anything and often times mismatched or what have you, but if I see smiles on the faces in our rooms and hear laughter of loved ones, that's a successful party to me. 

Do you have a special tradition you like to do for parties or family gatherings?  As the holidays are approaching, I think about those things.  I wonder how other people do things, and am always looking for a cool thing to become a new tradition for our little family, something we make our own that is different then our other family members traditions.  Something the kids will look back on and say, "on Christmas, we always..."  or "For Thanksgiving, we have to do...".  What are some of your traditions?  Do you have something that  you incorporate in your celebrations that is unique to you?  I'd love to hear about it!

Wishing you welcomeness and comfort, too, ~Peacemom