Lulu Calendars!

Yay! The LuLu calendars are in the store and ready for you to pick up. We have carried Lulu products for 8 years now and I never tire of Anne Keenan Higgins' whimsical designs. Apparently neither do any of you! I had forgotten to order these calendars in and was reminded by several customers. So thank you!

-M.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time ringing in the new year. Bob and I had a blast! We spent the evening with my sister and her husband who spent the night at our house. We started the festivities with a delicious dinner at House of Tricks in Tempe, rode the light rail (I loved it! It felt so hip and urban for Arizona!), and then came home to play cards. However, we had way too much energy to sit still so instead we decided to tee-pee my brother’s house! (he lives across the street) We knew they were at home with the kids and some of our other friends, so we decked ourselves out in our best stealthing duds and headed over to do our toilet paper best.

As luck would have it, they came out when we had only just started and we had to run and hide in the neighbor’s bushes. (how old are we?) I swear my sister and I were laughing so hard! Of course they knew who the culprits were and they went back inside to plan their revenge attack. To further our bad luck, we didn’t know that another neighborhood family was also over there, so all together they had 8 kids jonesing to slaughter our house! Not good!

Fortunately Bob and I do not give up so easily so we hid on the opposite sides of our house and when the kids came I had the front house and Bob had the back and we sprayed the heck out of the kids! It was a hoot! Don’t mind the fact that it was now midnight and freezing outside and the kids’ feet were turning blue! But atleast it was a night they would never forget.

I have to say that we were outnumbered and my ambush plan of the water backfired since the kids were only too happy to be doused. So admitting defeat we went inside and left them to do their worst. And believe me they did! Our house looked hysterical in the morning!

Thankfully the kids came back in the morning to help clean up. Afterwards I raked up a huge pile of leaves from our yard and the neighborhood kids played in it for hours! If you want some free entertainment for your kids, offer to rake some leaves for your neighbors and let the kids have at it!

-M.

This Christmas season was one of the best I have had. We did so many fun things and spent a lot of time with family and friends. Our Christmas party was a blast! We have found that the best night to have our party is the Saturday before Christmas. At that point there is never any conflicts with work parties, everyone is done shopping and ready to relax!

We never count, but I know there was at least 50 people at the party. And, even though I did a much better job of photo taking this year, I still did not do well enough! The pictures do not show how many people were there, how great the food looked, and how many people rocked the karaoke!

You can always find a reason to have a party. Especially with the New Year here! Pick a date, choose some friends, buy some invitations, (at M & Co.) and get a party going! Make it a tradition!

Here are a few party tips that we have learned to help you on your way:

1. Choose a date that does not conflict with any major holiday or sporting event
2. Plan your menu far in advance! We usually have our menu planned by October at the latest. That’s a little crazy, but we love food.
3. When choosing a menu, think of things that can be made in advance. You don’t want to be cooking when guests show up!
4. The week of the party we get our grocery list written up. Since our list is always pages long, and we can’t get everything from one store, I type up our list on the computer, noting the grocery store I can find it at, and sort my data! Voila! I have a very organized list to go from!
5. Make a schedule. I also make a list on the computer of everything that we need to accomplish the week of the party and sort it by the day we need to do it. Trust me on this, it works!
6. Hire someone or enlist a friend to help you with the hosting duties that night. I learned this the hard way when one year my sister whispered in my ear that we were out of toilet paper in one of the bathrooms! Hello, I was doing 20 million things! I never thought of toilet paper! (now I stack multiple rolls on top of the toilet so everyone knows just where it is)

I can go on and on, but these are a few that came to my mind just now. Of course I am already thinking of Valentines Day and wanting to have another party! Good thing my husband loves entertaining as much as I do!

-M.

(My Family)