9 bottles of prosecco...

No - I didn't drink all 9 by myself.. i had some help from a few good friends. Over the weekend, we hosted our first "Holiday Kickoff/ December Birthday Celebration" December is always such a crazy month with holiday parties, shopping, Christmas cards, wrapping - add in the fact that BOTH Kurt and I have December bdays (yay sagg) - we rarely throw ourselves a bday party - this year was different - we decided - "what the heck" lets have some fun with this. We invited a bunch of friends - and naturally being that it is the holiday season, a lot of our pals sadly couldn't come... but that didn't stop the party people that did show up from having a great time. We had a very special guest on the guestlist - MINI :) my bff... she came in on thursday and stayed through Sunday - it was SO great to see her, and she was an amazing help to have while preparing for our fete!

We sent out our e-vites about a month ago asking people to bring their favorite appetizer along with the recipe to share - this was a GREAT idea - not only did everyone bring their A-game.. it meant I didn't have as much to do.

We had:
- baked brie en croute w/ bacon and mushrooms with a brandy reduction (OMG)
- gorgonzola and walnut crostini topped with fig and drizzled with honey (OMG)
- prosciutto and bocconcini skewers (yumm-o)
- endive, pear and gorgonzola one bite salads (MMM)
- mac n cheese balls (thank you trader joes)
- goat cheese, tomato and pine nut crostini (tasty)
- 7 layer magic bars (toasty coconut!)
- red velvet cake balls with crushed peppermint (oh yes we did)

AND we had a prosecco bar! that is how we easily downed those 9 bottles... some straight up - but mostly sprinkled in with a little pomegranate juice / peach puree / limoncello etc. etc.

just some holiday decor - we filled that bowl w/ kettle corn :)
Here is mini working hard on the one bite salads!

here is the NON-alcoholic bar (tucked away all the way in the back)

And the prosecco bar!

We also had a traditional bar set up when you first arrive... nothing like being greeted by an open bar!

Me and mini - moments before the first guest arrived

some pals having a toast (kim, gina, rich, ryan)

red velvet deliciousness

this is what the little trash can looked like in the morning - i think this even had been emptied at one point during the night.

CHEERS!

happy holiday kickoff!
and happy birthday to all of the December bdays!