{"id":696,"date":"2011-12-23T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/12\/the-annual-holiday-open-house-cute-party-idea-and-recipes-to-share.html"},"modified":"2011-12-23T18:01:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T18:01:00","slug":"the-annual-holiday-open-house-cute-party-idea-and-recipes-to-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/12\/the-annual-holiday-open-house-cute-party-idea-and-recipes-to-share.html","title":{"rendered":"The Annual Holiday Open House…Cute Party Idea and Recipes to Share"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Why invest in those complicated key-ring-like wine charms when you might have a house full of THESE?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I’d heard about it from one of the GeekMoms.  I can’t remember whether it was on GeekMom itself, or one of the GeekMoms referencing another website with this idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I went through my kids’ THOUSANDS of Silly Bandz and found some particularly fun ones that our guests would recognize.  Spongebob and Phineas and Ferb bands made it into the batch, along with some sports-themed ones.  Folks who had the wine got a laugh out of choosing what charm to put on their glasses from the 20-or-so I had set out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Krabs from Spongebob<\/i>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ferb from Phineas and Ferb<\/i>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Last night we had our annual holiday open house.  We’ve tried to do this every year…this year we almost DIDN’T do it because of Dave’s back surgery recovery.  If you had asked in mid-November, the answer would have been a resounding NO.  We didn’t even decide to proceed with it till after Thanksgiving.  So long as folks had about 2 weeks notice, right?<\/p>\n

However, I think as time goes on over the years, planning for it gets easier and easier.  I set out the cookies that I’d made this week, and set out two fondue pots: one with cheese<\/a> and one with chocolate<\/a>.  Diced bread, fruits, veggies and pound cake all over. <\/p>\n

I make something for my punchbowl each year too.  Last year it was a festive rum punch<\/a> that was too sweet, IMHO.  This year I attempted homemade egg nog with spiced rum and I was impressed with the flavor and texture (and I was impressed with how quickly it was consumed).  I made a double batch based on Alton Brown’s recipe<\/a>, except with Myer’s Spiced Rum<\/a> instead of the bourbon recommended in the recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I messed up by not taking pictures of my pretty punchbowl filled with egg nog.  So I found this picture to inspire you.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We also presented these incredible bacon-cream cheese wraps<\/a> that we had tasted for the first time at someone else’s holiday open house last year.  I followed the recipe linked above, except I baked them at 375F instead of 350F.  Wednesday night I hand-rolled 3 lbs. worth of bacon roll ups!  Not to gross folks out, but the bacon grease gets into the bread some and then toasts the bread up really nicely.  Yum!  Seems like a rather campy, 1950s-esque hor d’oeuvre idea, but they disappeared very quickly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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My bacon-roll-ups looked like these.  Photo by Janetishungry.blogspot.com.
http:\/\/janetishungry.blogspot.com\/2008\/11\/bacon-and-cream-cheese-roll-ups.html <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We had a nice time — because it was rather close to the long holiday weekend, many of our friends were out of town, but that was okay.  As usual, I made too much food, and I’m convinced we now have more wine and beer than we started with, thanks to our guests bringing so much!  Thanks to everyone who could make it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why invest in those complicated key-ring-like wine charms when you might have a house full of THESE? I’d heard about it from one of the GeekMoms.  I can’t remember whether it was on GeekMom itself, or one of the GeekMoms referencing another website with this idea. I went through my kids’ THOUSANDS of Silly Bandz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[75,8,26,185,54],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-be","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":655,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/10\/glitch-where-webkinz-meets-dr-seuss-in-the-shire.html","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":0},"title":"Glitch: Where Webkinz Meets Dr. Seuss in The Shire!","date":"11 October 11","format":false,"excerpt":"The GeekMoms drew me into this new world of video gaming: the MMORPG.\"The WHAT?\"I know, many of my readers (hi Mom and Dad!) may not have heard that term, so allow me to educate you. \u00a0MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.A couple fellow GeekMoms got to be alpha- and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"computer\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-GKr0GDxyW28\/TpOcDFybtHI\/AAAAAAABaRY\/NodfSYm_Qko\/s640\/Glitch2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":606,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/07\/google-good-idea-or-bad-idea.html","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":1},"title":"Google+: Good Idea or Bad Idea?","date":"07 July 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I use that line with my kids a lot when they're making questionable decisions. \u00a0If one of them is feeding grass clumps to the dog, I'll ask \"Good idea? \u00a0Or bad idea?\" \u00a0Usually that's enough to make them think before continuing.I got a (not-quite sanctioned) invitation to join Google+, Google's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9.mshcdn.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/introducing-google\/google-plus-logo-640.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":719,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/03\/the-hunger-games-movie-the-odds-are-definitely-in-its-favor.html","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":2},"title":"The Hunger Games Movie…The Odds are Definitely in its Favor","date":"24 March 12","format":false,"excerpt":"This was at the Rave theater near Cordova Mall in Pensacola. \u00a0Someone had a good time making this out of posters. Today I did something very anti-social. \u00a0I went BY MYSELF to a movie. \u00a0I can't remember the last time I did that. \u00a0I just didn't feel like coordinating with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ApbpixCXl6k\/T20wQaif08I\/AAAAAAABg_s\/-WUKbulugyw\/s640\/IMG_2723.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1479,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/10\/out-of-my-comfort-zone-the-erin-gray-interview-on-geekmom.html","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":3},"title":"Out of My Comfort Zone: The Erin Gray Interview on GeekMom","date":"17 October 12","format":false,"excerpt":"I did something completely out of my comfort zone recently. I interviewed somebody and then wrote about the interview for GeekMom. It had nothing to do with meteorology or the Air Force -- so it was pretty tough for me. Because I had applied for media access to attend Dragon*Con\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dragon*con\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC_0360-e1350356309554-1024x757.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":686,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/holiday-lights.html","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":4},"title":"Holiday Lights!","date":"27 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the family more or less was lazy around the house, every once in a while working on the holiday decorations. \u00a0I whipped together three recipes of sugar cookie dough for this coming week, and we finished decorating both Christmas trees.This year, for the first time, we put up two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"christmas\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-S4jR6VPIASE\/TtHIffHacbI\/AAAAAAABb0c\/-iVBZOGfLsk\/s640\/IMG_6240.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":270,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/11\/cranberry-almond-biscotti.html","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":5},"title":"Cranberry Almond Biscotti","date":"26 November 08","format":false,"excerpt":"So as promised, here's some more cookie closeups from the Vollmer House.Cranberry Almond Biscotti. This is one sophisticated cookie...cranberries are always so, well, holiday! What's cool is that the only fat in the cookie is in the eggs (well, the almonds, too, I guess)!!!! So that makes them as healthy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"christmas\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}