CarrieDaway

  

Last year we hosted my Mom’s family for Easter breakfast.  It went well enough but was a bit rushed because we also had to go to Danny’s family in the afternoon.  I felt bad for double-booking so this year I invited people over for Holy Saturday, it was a much better arrangement. I love hosting parties and am learning more tricks about how to make events enjoyable for myself and my guests.  I made sure to have the food ready and all the baking dishes washed and put away before our guests arrived.  It was a load off my mind to not worry about a mess in the kitchen or burning food and gave me the chance to be fully attentive to our guests.

It’s important to me that holidays and events are special; therefore, I make a point to try new things when we have people over. Pinterest is really useful in helping me stay creative.  Last year I folded the napkins into bunnies but wanted something different this time.  Since I planned to use place cards I decided to use the pocket fold and create personalized menu cards.  It was very simple to do but looks fancy.

Centerpieces really make a table but they can be expensive.  My trick is to use plants instead of flowers.  They are significantly cheaper but look gorgeous and can be planted outside at a later date.  This year I found flowers at Menard’s for $2 per plant.  It was relatively easy to find flowers but impossible to find a vase.  I literally couldn’t find a vase of any size at a number of mainstream stores.  Thankfully, I found simple glass bowls at Bed Bath and Beyond that were a perfect fit for $2. Danny picked up some potting soil at Home Depot and for less than $15 we had three lovely centerpieces for the day and beautiful flowers for the front yard.