Open House on New Year's Day

Well, we did not have as many come as we thought, but that is because of the flu epidemic that is going on.  About 10 families called us yesterday morning about the flu!  UGH!  Glad they did not come.

Other than that though, the little get together was great!  DH's boss and co workers came as well as some of my friends.  About 20 altogether.  As opposed to the 60 that RSVP'd in the positive.

 Before anyone got there, I tried to get some pictures of the food we had out, but I only grabbed 4 before people started coming - it was a hectic morning!  We had the normal - veggie and olive area.
 

 Instead of making a new dessert, we just set out the leftover cookies from Christmas - these are the haystacks - chinese crispy noodles with butterscotch and peanut butter - some had peanuts in them and some not.  We also had some cookie and cream sticks (gift we received) and light lemon crackers with a dusting of sugar that are melt in your mouth good (also received as a gift).

We found this gorgeous wooden cheese tray on clearance and we snagged it for only $5!  I love that the edge matches our countertop edge!  Cheeses served (all gifts received) Colby, Swiss and Smoked Cheddar.

Something NOT pictured is the little silver dollar sandwiches we picked up from a local grocer here - they are so good and great for a light gathering - they come with ham, turkey and roast beef.  My kids love them and so did the guests.  We have some left over, but college boy is taking them with him when he goes back to school today - he will eat them on the way there.

I used some Kohl's cash to purchase the triple crock when it was on sale right before Christmas.  I LOVE it, but I am a HUGE crock pot fan.  I made a corn and jalapeno dip, spinach artichoke dip and a simple queso using Tostito brand queso adding some milk to thin it out and added nacho jalapenos.

In the big crock pot, I made BBQ Sausages.   Only I added some local link sausages as well as little smokies.  For the recipe, I put only about a tbsp of brown sugar in it and added about 1/4 cup of spicy brown mustard.  The guest went freaking gaga over them - they were excellent!

In addition, we had my famous Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade Punch, Sweet Tea, Coffee and Green Tea via Keurig, as well as one side of our sink filled with iced water bottles, wine and beer.

We felt that everything went very well, everyone was complimentary about the house and with most of the guest being Chinese, we talked about traveling quite a bit - it got the travel bug in me going, but we have to get out of debt first!

Overall we got a lot done with the house while DH was home.  I am not looking around going - we need to do this, we need to do that.  Homeschool was organized and I am ready to start this year fresh and clean.