If I Could Have My Dream Job . . .

I would be a party/event planner. I love to plan parties! I love planning the decorations, the food, the entertainment. Everything. The last big neighborhood party I had was during the Olympics last fall and we had a mini Olympics at my house. We had a javelin throw with swimming pool noodles, a discus throw with paper plates, bowling with pineapples and Nerf gun shooting plus several other activities. And then there was the Christmas party . . .

More recently I have helped plan two other parties. The first was a semi-formal garden party held last month in my friend Suzy's backyard. Suzy is a ton of fun and a hard worker, so the perfect person to plan a party with. She is also the very best at making very cute place cards. She made the clever and beautiful place cards below. Each of the little tangerines had a name written on a miniature piece of paper glued to a toothpick and stuck in the fruit.

Since purple is my favorite color, I wanted to use it for the table cloths. We also tied purple bows to the chairs and decorated the table with orange and yellow flowers. On each plate we had chocolate truffles wrapped in purple cellophane and tied with a yellow bow. My good friend Jenny also planned the party with us. Jenny is another great person to work with. She has great ideas, and she keeps track of everyone's assignments.

For dinner we served chicken breasts stuffed with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and three different cheeses, fresh green beans with butter and lemon, seasoned rice, a green salad and homemade rolls.

Today was another party. I have been working on this one for over a month now and loved how it came together--thanks to many people who helped out. It was for my friend Sonia's 40th birthday. Her favorite color is red so we wanted to use that without making it look like Valentines, so we added black in polka dots and gingham.

We gathered pictures from Sonia's past and another friend, Amy, put them together in this very cute display. The blank one in the center was signed by everyone at the party (28 people) and the red paper will be replaced with a group picture.

Around the room, on the walls we placed enlarged news articles covering the top ten stories of 1969. That was the year Sesame Street made its debut, Woodstock was held, the Internet began, the draft was reinstated, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and of course, Sonia was born! My daughter Kristen--who did all the news research--made up a fake edition of the Los Angeles Times--special evening edition--and wrote several articles about Sonia's birth, which included things like a message from then President Nixon, congratulations from recently elected Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, and astronaut Neil Armstrong.

For entertainment we played Family Feud Sonia Style--where everyone had to guess her top answers to categories like "Favorite Musical Group of the 80's" and "Top Vacation Spots". We filled up on Mexican food, brownie bites, miniature cheese cakes and cherry bars, (her favorite foods) and watched her open some very thoughtful gifts. No gag gifts were given but one card came close. It said, "Well, wasn't it fun being young and skinny? But now that is all over . . . " Ouch.

And now I am ready to take a break from partying and start focusing on other areas of my life. Like next Thursday night I am speaking at our stake youth conference. I only have to speak for 15 minutes, so it shouldn't be too hard to prepare, but so far I have not given it a thought. Any suggestions???