A Day of Party Prepping!

My Sweet Louis Dean helped me prepare for my Cup of Christmas Tea Party tomorrow.

Our yard guy usually arrives at the perfect moment before we give a party.

He didn't make it this time so LD was out there blowing and mowing for a couple of hours. It may have taken a tad bit longer since he ran over the cord and had to stop and repair it!

He's a 'big picture' man and not into the details so the fact of the matter is - there will still be plenty of leaves for our guy to get when he does come. Right now they are in the flower beds and under bushes.

But the grass area is all cleaned up!!

While he worked in front, I worked inside......

baking pumpkin muffins and the fruitcake cookies.

I like sitting in the gazebo so much I carried the cookie sheets out there!

It was in the upper 70's today! Doors open and short sleeves! But I still lit candles for the ambiance!

Thankfully, it's supposed to be at least 20 degrees cooler tomorrow! YES!

Prepping took all day long.

Doing things ahead of time means I will enjoy myself at the party.

I have a game plan!

We will use my Christmas dessert plates but plastic forks.

Paper napkins but real glasses.

I got tangled up with 900 lights around the kitchen pond - 4 sets of 150 net lights and 1 strand of 300 single lights.

Louis Dean did the dirty work of cleaning it out and - believe me - after all the leaves had fallen,, it really was nasty dirty! The lights are now all strung up and shining pretty.

I was a sight struggling underneath the leaves and tangled up with the rose brushes - which snagged my clothes and I had to be rescued by my husband who never said a cross word. I love that about him. If something is important to me - it's important to him. Even if it seems ridiculous.

We nursed our wounds back in the gazebo before getting a second wind and hitting the kitchen.

He scraped and cut up the carrots and celery while I sliced cheeses. He sliced up a ham while I made Jalapeno Popper Bread - at least got it all ready to pop into the oven when my party starts. 

All I have to do tomorrow is bake my cake, vacuum the whole house, Windex, clean HIS bathroom, put together the chicken salad sandwiches and get dressed!Whew! That still sounds like a lot!

The last things to do will be light the candles and put the fireplace DVD on the TV.

It's going to be fun!!