WE HAD A FEW NEIGHBORS OVER!!!

WOW...WHAT A FUN PARTY

MC and I were the Hosts last night of our neighborhood Wine Party, AKA, DWTS (Drinking With the Snobs).  Title given due to the fact none of us know a THING about wine!


The procedure is very simple and tons of fun.


The Host/Hostess chooses the region where the wine of the evening will come from.  Everyone brings a bottle from that region along with a light appetizer.
We "taste", vote,  and TASTE SOME MORE....Simple!
The guest whose wine is chosen as the BEST, is awarded the SASH to wear at the next party!  Oh this is so coveted!

We chose the Southern Hemisphere as the Region!  MC made it easy.  He wanted to do South Africa, but when we looked around the area, we could only find 4 different varieties in a 40+ mile radius of our home! You need a region that has a large variety,  thus giving us all a great tasting party.

Last night 35 of our neighbors were able to attend.  We always have a wonderful bunch.  We try and have these parties every month. This allows all  a chance to attend.  One couple are now Snow Birds in Florida until May, others are cruising the Seas, Rivers and  Oceans of the world,  or visiting family and friends.  In other words not everyone is home for each party.

We all chipped in and bought three dozen wine glasses at the Dollar Store!  These are delicate crystal wine glasses!!!  Got that ...we have $36 invested in these babies!

 

After the party, the Host washes the glasses  (they all fit in the dishwasher), boxes them up in specially made boxes, (MC made some pretty clever boxes), which will be delivered  to the Host for the next month.  

 The guests take their appetizer dishes and left over wines home!  ...How Simple!

MC and I had the house back to normal in an hour's time!

I was curious about placement ideas and before the party,  Googled "Staging Your Home for a Cocktail Party".  I found some great ideas and implemented a few that worked for our type of party.

It's always a question of where to place the food and wine.  And,  how to arrange seating!

I had decided that all the appetizers would be placed on our 60" dining room glass top table, with the chairs moved out of the way.   This allowed everyone to freely circle the table for their desired goodies!

This idea was #1 on most of the sites I Googled....Gee I should have written a website on that!

It worked PERFECTLY.  Here Sandi is easily maneuvering around!

 This is the perfect place to showoff MC's FAMOUS Penguins made with black olives, carrots and cream cheese!  Perfect for an appetizer, since Antarctica is in the Southern Hemisphere.




We put the wines on the long portion of our kitchen counter.   See the numbers?  As each guest arrives, the Host writes down the variety, winery label, etc. and places a number on the bottle.  There is a chart where all the guests can enter their "vote", by number.....no names...blind tasting!

 


The best advice I picked up on one of the websites suggested that all the seating in your main "gathering" area face each other and have easy access to tables. Dah, who would think of that?   For seating,  I arranged all our seating,  facing the coffee table, in a large square.  No angles.  It worked like magic!  We had our kitchen table available for those who wished to sit at a table, but very few did.  The guests were in our Great Room/Kitchen/Dining Room (open floor plan),  where they could easily visit and chat.  Everyone mingled about.  No one was "stuck" by himself !  That was a main point on all the websites.  It warned not to have remote sitting areas so that all the guests, all the time,  were a part of the party!

 THE SASH

 This is a picture of our last and Reigning Winner, Gayle,   until last night.  We will formally SASH our new winner at next month's DWTS

We are now back to our normal crazy life. 

and

We can get to work on our next project.