Dinner Parties

Our dinning room table sits four - so I am not really one for a dinner party. But since we bought this new house, and have all this room, we decided to have a dinner party before Christmas with some friends of mine from work. Matt brought a table from work and we set it up with folding chairs. For the first time ever, I used Grandma Kelly's China Dad brought her from the Philippians and the table linens too (lots of ironing before we could even use them though!)

Matt's bonus was a ham - so we centered the menu around that -

• Brie wrapped in puff pastry and baked - served with crackers, apples, pears and gingersnaps
• Jalapeno jelly served an crackers covered with cream cheese
• Herb spiral rolls (pre-made bread dough with a mixture of herbs spread on like you would with cinnamon roll seasoning and cut up jelly roll style and baked in muffin tins)
  
• Ham
• Spiced Pears (pears cooked in a can of cranberry sauce with cinnamon and ginger...very good)
  
• Whipped mashed potatoes (Matt made this, I have no idea what is in it but I imagine lots of brown sugar!)
  
• Blue cheese and apple salad with raspberry vinaigrette
  
• Candycane ice cream with hot fudge sauce and a side of chocolate covered pretzels and sugar cookies
  

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The biggest hit of the night was the brie served with gingersnaps. Here is a picture of my boss by the appetizers.

Dinner parties are exhausting though...I don't think I would have done it had it not been for Kirsten, Matt's sister who had been staying with us, who could help set up and clean up.

I want to hear all about the dinner parties you had this holiday season - especially you Megan!