Well, the holiday mayhem is winding down.

NOT.

For us, Christmas was fairly low-key this year. We were home, not in Binghamton, which always makes me very happy. There's just something nice about waking up in your own house on Christmas morning.

We went to the movies on Christmas Eve and saw The Good Shepherd. Word of advice? Skip it. It was unbearably long and drawn-out. I thought we'd never make it out of the theatre. Ugh.

When we got home from the movies, we opened our gifts. Remember how much I loved Madonna's Confessions on a Dancefloor last year? I've decided that my favorite CD of this year is John Mayer's Continuum, which was one of the things that The Huz bought for me. Love it. LOVE it. It's sublime, bluesy goodness. I especially like the first three tracks and the last track. Fantastic album!

I also got Alicia Keys' Unplugged...another great album. I've seen Alicia in concert twice and she never disappoints. In fact, I think that she is one of the few artists whose voice sounds better live than on recordings. This album captures her at her best.

So now I'm getting ready for the party we're having on Saturday afternoon. Hence, the title of this post. We're expecting almost fifty people--more than I've ever tried to entertain at one time! I'm trying hard not to start hyperventilating when I think about it. The guest list consists almost entirely of my family, most of whom have never seen our new house, but we're also having a few neighbors as well. I think I'm in good shape so far...the catered portion of the food has been ordered, I've test-run a few recipes for food that I'm making myself, and we've been slowly straightening up the house for the past week. Still, I've had a couple nightmares in which people show up at our house and I've overslept and there is no food for them and I am still in my nightgown. I wake up gasping for breath.

Entertaining shouldn't be this stressful, should it?

Hoping that you all had a wonderful holiday!

Labels: holidays, movies, music