Party Logistics

by Amy

Ok, so this post is written more for my benefit than yours.  Since I'll be in the States next Christmas, I won't be hosting parties like this until December of 2012.  And, I'm sad to admit this, but my memory is fading.  I don't trust that I'll remember what I did this year, but if I write about it here, there's a good chance I'll come back and read it.  So, feel free to skip over this post!  I won't be offended!

Although we had over 75 locals in our home over a period of 5 days, I made a few intentional decisions that helped it go smoothly.  First of all, when it came to food, I baked early, I baked simply, and I baked small!  Christmas cookies freeze beautifully, so I didn't feel like baking early compromised the taste.  And, I decided this year I was going to only bake two kinds of Christmas cookies: Sugar cookies and mint chocolate cookies. And, I made them SMALL!  So small, in fact, that for the chocolate cookies we used my cookie dough scoop and broke each scoop into two small balls of dough and could place 24 on my cookie sheet.  Locals aren't crazy about sweets, but they'll usually try whatever I put out, so small is great.  My sugar cookie dough, I made into slice & bake logs, and froze them for easy slicing.  Each batch produced well over 100 cookies.  So, when my helpers got hungry, they could swipe a cookie or two without making a dent in our productivity.  Also, I was more concerned about my kids having fun in helping me than I was about the final product.  Clashing icing colors and sprinkles isn't a big deal -- if they liked it, I was fine with it!

I also decided to use a box of cake mix to make mini-chocolate cupcakes.  I don't usually like to use imported goods when I serve locals for two reasons: 1. Imported goods are expensive and/or hard to find.  My local friends don't know what chocolate cake is supposed to taste like, so they're just as happy with a homemade version (that isn't as tasty) as they are with the cake mix doctored version.  2. My local friends can't reproduce it.  I love to feed them things that they like and could make with local ingredients.  If they want me to, I'll teach them how to make it!  But, for this Christmas season, I set my reasons aside.  Cake mix freezes beautifully, and is good, reliable, predictable and FAST!  (And I had several boxes Brad found our our local eBay for less than $1.50.)  So, mini-cupcakes (un-iced) made all my parties this year.

The other reason my parties went smoothly was that I had a plan that I could use each time....  I picked portions of the story to read, found songs to sing in between the readings (in both the local language and English), I asked someone to share a testimony, and had two games that helped reinforce the story.  This party could be tailored to any audience - adults or college students, English speakers or non-English speakers.  Furthermore, my kids were included in not only the prep but also in the party itself.  They were time keepers, judges, artists, and even soloist throughout the event!  Our guest loved having them around; they enjoyed it, and it helped me a ton!  (Just think what they'll be able to do in two years when we're doing this again!)

So, apart from the Lord's sweet grace, I think this is why our parties went well, were relatively low stress, and  all around enjoyable.