I’ve written a lot about my Gingerbread Party, but I’m back with one last* (boring-ish) post–this one on the technical side.

Pro Winner Shannon’s Nativity

This is the fourth year I threw this party, and the guest list gets tougher every year. Who do I invite? Does anyone not get invited this time around? I think having an annual party makes this a lot trickier–even as relationships grow and change, the party remains constant. I don’t want to leave out old friends, but there isn’t much room in a one bedroom for new ones if its full of old.

So I have a spreadsheet. The past-winner couple (he designs, she builds) entertain tons and have struggled with invites as well, and she gave me great advice (that I initially made fun of) to keep a spreadsheet. It actually helps a lot, especially if you have an annual event and want to invite as many people as you can.

Someone’s Boyfriend took second place in the Amateur Division with his very first house ever.

Mine look likes:

Affliation* Name*# in party* 2012 Status (y/n/m), and then Invited/Attended/Replied for each of the past two years, which makes it easy to see where people fall.

I don’t want to stop inviting anyone who has attended, or who has not attended but rsvped. If I’ve invited someone and they didn’t rsvp, I won’t feel as bad about dropping them, especially since that will allow me to invite someone I’m closer to now. I’ve thought about not inviting people that I was much closer to in the past, but after someone said to me last year, “It just isn’t Christmas until your gingerbread party!” no one’s off the list.

Having those records make it easier on me in a couple of ways:

• I don’t forget that I invited that acquaintance last year and leave them off this time around
• I realize I only thought about inviting Bob last year, so I’m not dropping him if he doesn’t make the cut this year.
• All the information is in one place, so I realize it if I accidentally invite 50 people to my one bedroom.

To give you some perspective, 2011 I think 60 people were invited, and about 40 came. It. Was. CROWDED. At one point, there were four people in my hall. It was so crowded it was uncomfortable.

This year, I had 58 adults and 8 children on my yes/maybe list and cut 30 people who were past invitees, including a couple who came once, but who I really don’t talk to any longer (so I’m okay with offending them if it happens). What was at issue were two basic questions:

* Two people who were married and are now divorced–I’m in the same social circle as the man, who is dating someone new, but have also socialized with the woman. Both have been invited in the past, and I’m not sure what to do here.

* Work. Right now I have nine coworkers on the Maybe list. And realistically, if I invite them, there are another half dozen I should invite as well. Most of those coworkers come with significant others, so that’s even more people. I’d love to invite them, but I don’t feel like I can invite everyone, unless they promise to stay outside. The issue? Two of them actually came last year, and I feel rude not inviting them again–even though they aren’t the ones I’m closest to. I AM inviting two coworkers, but one is my other half (we have the same first name & last initial and are always together, so I could easily invite her and no one else) and the other I did a 62 mile bike ride with in September, so I think hanging out one on one qualifies.

Ultimately, I left the divorced couple off the list, and invited only the two closest coworkers.

My party had plenty of room to breathe and I actually talked to my guests. Next year I might put some more coworkers back on the list if I feel like there will be room, but having my spreadsheet updated and ready for the 2013 party makes the guest list a much easier process once it’s time.

Do you keep a list of who gets invited to what? Do you think I’m crazy for having one?

Do you invite coworkers to parties? What is the biggest party (not wedding) that you have ever thrown?

*This is the last post about this unless I get the really awesome photos back from the official party photographer or the recap video.

Remember my epic gingerbread party?

Well, the 2012 version happened, and some pretty intense building. What do you think?

All this, plus ten boxes of graham crackers and six bags of powdered sugar on their way to becoming icing

On the way to the judging, the dining room looked like this:

Not everyone built houses. I only built one the first year, and plenty of others weren’t there long enough/were too intimidated to make one. Don’t worry, I still had fun hanging out with my favorite little girl!

Hi there cutie!

And then they were done.

Pro Winner Shannon’s Nativity (she’s an architect, but this is her first win and she was beyond excited. She even had her husband come back and pick it up so it could be there for the judging, and it apparently is still on their coffee table)

Robyn’s Classic Cottage finished second (she took first last year)

Someone’s Boyfriend took second place in the Amateur Division with his very first house ever.

And a few other houses…

It was a lovely party, and definitely a tradition I want to continue, but I’m pondering changes for next year. I think I may make the houses in advance and have next year by only about the decorations–and ask everyone to bring one decoration to share and nothing personal to use (I allowed that this year).

Did you make a gingerbread (or graham cracker) house this year?

I’m hosting Thanksgiving again this year, if by “hosting” you mean having two people over for dinner. I’ve hosted for the past several years, which I didn’t find terribly stressful, so I thought I would share a little of what I did for first timers. My first Thanksgiving was 7 people, which still isn’t that many, but qualifies me a lot better than serving dinner to two people. One of whom is my mother. An important disclaimer is that I’m single, which means I never got married, which means I never registered, which means there are a whole mess of Thanksgiving related things I had to hunt down because even not-entirely-average single girls like me don’t randomly have carving boards and gravy boats and a whole mess of serving utensils.

My main concern was all the random stuff I wouldn’t think of until I had a pan of gravy on the stove with no receptacle, as well as messing up the timing and having a cold ____ because it came out of the oven an hour early. So I made myself a poster. People teased me, but it helped–even with a minor* issue, things went off quite well.

My categories are dish, ingredients (which to me is things I could potentially not have on hand, so I don’t include butter/flour/oil/staple items), prep (again, special tools I might not have, so “knife” isn’t on there but “roasting pan” is), serving (everything here–this is where you determine you own two serving spoons and need five) and timing (how long does it take/early should you start/temp & time in oven).

With all of this information, it was pretty easy to work backwards from my desired serving time, call my mother in a panic and tell her to bring spoons, email my aunt to ask for a carving board and figure out when to put in the stuffing**.

Also, helpful side note: You are going to screw up the rolls. The timing is impossible to get right unless that is someone’s sole responsibility.

Have you ever hosted Thanksgiving?

*When the stovetop timer went off, my mom helpfully hit “Off” on the oven panel, turning off the timer. And the oven, which is where the turkey was, and I didn’t notice for 20 minutes.

**This is a lie. My family doesn’t like stuffing, so I didn’t make any. We mostly eat mashed potatoes. The rest is just details.

Time for the nitty gritty….

I’ve talked about my annual party before, and I’m making sure me evite is ready to go out the day after Thanksgiving. I feel funny doing it before that, but I have already told people who asked the date.

This will be the fourth year, and its gotten really popular. That means everyone has an opinion and the competition has heated up–people started trash talking in October.

Last years winners caused some serious drama, so this year I’m going all out official on the rules, to prevent another situation like this one:

Beach Cottage. Well-researched, well-executed, and the most contentious thing to ever happen at a party.

So make fun of me all you want, but this party needs some rules. I figured if I’m doing rules go official, so here’s what I have. Please feel free to share feedback. These will be official on Thanksgiving when invitations go out. And make fun of them all you want, I’m happy as long as they are specific enough to prevent drama.

Gingerbread House Party Rules

Children’s Division: 6 pm Judging

Amateur Division: 7 pm Judging

Professional Division: 8 pm Judging

There are two divisions adults can enter their houses under, Amateur and Professional.

Amateur houses use a standard gingerbread house structure and are decorated with standard decorations (those provided to all guests). While amateur houses have some additional decoration, fully decorated boards would be considered entrants into the pro division.

Professional houses are any sort of gingerbread structure (with a limit of xxx crackers?) and may use provided materials as well as entrant supplied. If you are an architect/designer/engineer/cookie ninja this is your division.

This year, there will be two non-entrants serving as division judges. Non-entrants are defined as an individual who is neither entering or closely connected to an entrant (as a significant other, for instance). Division judges will provide the final say for which division a house is judged in.