Getting Ready For 2010

I am spending most of the day preparing for our annual New Year's Eve party. We have all of our family over, eat a lot, have a Wii tournament, and play board games. Midnight always gets here so fast! I have started the gumbo. It will simmer in the crock pot all day. My house already smells spicy!

The grapes are chilling for the grape salad. You can see the cream cheese and sour cream standing by to make that yummy stuff that gets mixed in. It is topped with brown sugar and pecans.

Right now the sweetened condensed milk is baking into caramel (it takes an hour and twenty minutes) for the banana caramel pie. I will put it all together after it cools.

I bought all of our party supplies at Target and Wal-Mart. Yes, I sprung for the 2010 glasses! I also got the cutest cups that say, "I am ________ and at midnight I will kiss _________". We write our names on our cups with a Sharpie anyway and did I mention these were cute?

While I am waiting for caramel to finish so I can put in the sausage balls, I will get to work on my calendar. Choosing the year's calendar for the fridge is always a big deal for me. We use it constantly for all four of our busy activities, so I look at it a lot. I usually choose tropical islands, or Italy, or even a nice Ansel Adams. This year, I took a detour and chose "Yoga Cats". It was just too funny! I don't know what that says about the coming year.

I know I should probably be blogging about art, but food is right up there on my list of favorite things. Here's our menu for tonight. Mmmmm...

• Grape Salad
• Cucumber Sandwiches
  
• Gumbo
• Banana Caramel Pie
• Sausage Balls
• Peel and Eat Shrimp
• Chili Cheese Dip and Tortilla Chips
• Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
• The "Big Sandwich"