Alex and I recently hosted a scotch tasting and dinner party at our house during Alexandria's Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend. The weekend celebrates Alexandria's Scottish heritage, as the city was named for Scotsman John Alexander, an original founder of the city and owner of much of its land. The weekend features a festive parade, a holiday tour of homes (here's a look back to when our home was on the tour lineup), a heather and greens sale, and many more yule tide and Scottish inspired festivities. Hands down, it's our favorite weekend of the year in Alexandria, and in our household, officially marks the start of the Christmas season.

Getting ready for the party seemed a bit overwhelming, because it not only meant preparing for a dinner event, but it also meant making sure our home was properly decked out for the holidays. We had a tree to buy and decorate...

...exterior window wreaths to hang...

...and miscellaneous touches to ensure our home was properly festive.

So when it came to designing our table for the event, I didn't have a lot of time or energy to spare. That's where less than $10.00 in grocery store flowers came to the rescue. 

Focusing on the tablescape as a whole and keeping in mind the theme of the weekend, I knew I wanted to use tartan to decorate our table, while keeping in mind the somewhat rustic Highlands of Scotland. To balance off the pattern of the tartan and add a rustic texture, I set the table with a base "tablecloth" of burlap and topped it with two tartan runners, all of which we had on hand thanks to when we participated in the home tour. 

While the intent is to keep the feeling somewhat Highlands rustic, we also want it to feel like a sophisticated event. As a result, It's one of the few, if only nights of the year, we break out our wedding china and stemware (largely due to the fact it isn't dishwasher safe). Our china is a simple white pattern with a platinum edge, which I paired with white dinner napkins and silver chargers.

I didn't want the centerpiece to compete with the tartan runners, and also didn't want a floral centerpiece to be so tall it physically interfered with conversation. So I opted to use two matching low glass vases I had on hand, along with a simple yet elegant color palette of green and white. I purchased two bunches of flowers at our local grocery store -- a dozen white roses and a small cluster of green berries. 

In order to bulk up the arrangement, I added in some fresh cut greenery from our yard as well as a few trimmed lower branches from our Christmas tree. (Tip: I've found that if you don't have enough of your own trimmed branches on hand, many times businesses selling Christmas trees are happy to give you any of their extra cuttings at no charge. I then use these branches for mantel decor, arrangements around the house, exterior decorations, etc.)

I set out to create two identical centerpieces, so I began by trimming and then arranging six roses in each vase.

I make sure I trim off some of the leaves to keep them all above the water, but I leave those on above the water line for fullness and color. 

After I had the roses arranged the way I wanted them, I repeated the process with the berries and fresh greenery so that the two centerpieces were the mirror images of each other, and put them on the table with a few tea lights around them.

All in all, I am really happy with how the centerpieces came together both on their own and as part of the table setting. At less than $5.00 each and five minutes of effort to put them together, I'd call it a win.

The evening was a ton of fun, and the entire night served as a lovely kickoff for the holiday season. 

It was a great excuse to don kilts (yes, three of the four men present were wearing them!), enjoy the company of friends and neighbors, sample delicious food and whiskey, and celebrate the season.

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1. Small plates/appetizer dishes - We're not throwing a dinner so food can be kept light 
2. Easily assembled and managed - I want to enjoy the party too, and don't want to be cooking
3. Mix of warm, cold, and comfort - It is winter outside
4. Finger foods are best - Most guests will also have drinks the whole night
5. Alcohol a plenty and other drinks too - It's a New Year's Eve party -- 'nuff said

Following these few rules I can put together a menu for a New Year's Eve event that is filling, festive, fun, and consists of many party favorites. The following are my tried and true inclusions for a great late evening party. If all goes well, your friends will put on their best party dress and end the night looking like this.

Cheese Plate

Who doesn't love cheese? A simple and easy formula for creating a crowd pleasing cheese plate is to include a soft cheese like brie or goat, a hard cheese like an aged/smoked gouda, and a blue cheese, such as gorgonzola. 

Photo Credit: President Cheese

Surround the cheese with thin slices of bread, one or two varieties of crackers, and fresh or dried fruit like sliced pears, dried apricots, or a large bunch of grapes. For a special touch, add toasted walnuts, a small dish of chutney, and drizzle the blue cheese with honey. 

Shrimp Cocktail

This is a simple, go to menu item for any party, and it's all in the assembly. Pick up a bag of large frozen, cleaned and deveined shrimp, along with a bottle of good cocktail sauce. Follow the instructions to thaw the shrimp in a timely manner prior to your guests arriving. Arrange the shrimp on a platter in a very organized fashion, tails out. 

Photo Credit: Cha Cha

They should surround a dish filled with the cocktail sauce in the middle of the platter. Be sure to place a spoon in the cocktail sauce to encourage guests to spoon the sauce onto their plate rather than dipping the shrimp. Assume roughly three to four shrimp per guest. 

Barbecue Meatballs

This one's a no brainer, yet is always a crowd pleaser. I pick up a big bag of frozen meatballs and a large bottle of barbecue sauce. An hour or so before the party starts I empty the meatballs into a crockpot or sauce pan (depending on the size of the party), pour barbecue sauce over the meatballs, and set the stove to low. 

Just before guests arrive, I arrange the meatballs in a beautiful serving dish with toothpicks nearby, and I'm all set. In the photo above you can see them to the left of the drink.

Crostini

This is an item I always have in my entertaining arsenal, and by that I mean my pantry and freezer. I periodically pick up a fresh sour dough baguette, slice it into 3/4" slices, and freeze the slices inside a large freezer bag so I have them on hand at all times. When I need a quick appetizer, I pull them out and arrange them on a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray, and lightly toast them on either side under the broiler. 

Photo Credit: Weeknight Gourmet

Once the bread is ready, I top it with a pre-made bruschetta, olive tapenade, or roasted red pepper spread for a quick and easy party pleaser. We have some great selections available at our local Trader Joe's.

Olives and Nuts

To round out the menu, fill several small bowls with a variety of nuts and olives. My go to selections of nuts are almonds, cashews, and peanuts. You can get fancy and grab the nuts with flavoring, like the wasabi almonds or honey roasted peanuts, but simple salted is usually just as much of a crowd pleaser. 

Photo Credit: Horchow

For olives I like to mix and match items like plain olives and green olives stuffed with interesting bits like blue cheese or sun dried tomatoes. Again, set toothpicks nearby so guests can easily pick the items up (without dipping their fingers into the bowl).

Various Alcohols & Other Drinks

A New Year's Eve party wouldn't be completed without a few options to ring in the New Year. As the ball drops you want to be sure to have a person on your arm to kiss, and a glass in your hand to toast with. There's obviously the old standby of Champagne/Sparkling Wine. Personally, I like the bubbly quite a bit, and I like to make sure I have several decent bottles on hand for the celebration. My favorite party sparkling selections include Mumm Napa Cuvee Brut and Domaine Chandon Brut. Both California made, both pair well with cheese and the other items I've mentioned, and both will not leave your guests with serious headaches (because the bubbles are naturally occurring from fermentation and not CO2 injected, but that's a whole other blog post).

If you serve sparkling, assume one glass per guest at a minimum if you plan on popping the corks just before midnight, one glass per hour per guest if you plan to have it open all night long. The typical 750ml bottle will pour roughly five standard champagne glasses per bottle.

Beyond the sparkling wine, stock your bar with your favorite beer, a few bottles of red wine (pinot noir is a good safe bet), and white wine (stick with sauvignon blanc). If you make a "signature cocktail" for the evening, keep it simple and clear/light, like a vodka tonic. Something that will keep the night moving with minimal interruption. 

Don't forget about the designated drivers, non drinkers, and people who just want to stay hydrated throughout the night (that's everyone, really). I always like to stock sparkling water, plain water (flavored with citrus), and even something like the San Pellegrino orage/lemon/blood orange flavored beverages. There's no reason someone who's not drinking should be made to feel like they're missing out.

There you have it. That's my advice on how you setup your menu for a simple, no fuss way to throw an enjoyable party. Just turn on some music, enjoy the company of your friends, and celebrate as we say farewell to 2012 and welcome in 2013.  

If you're looking for tablescape ideas, be sure to check out my post on setting a festive table for New Year's Eve.

What are your plans for this New Year's Eve? Are you throwing a party, or will you be attending? If you're going somewhere, is it an organized event, or are you headed to a friend or family member's home? Any idea what's going to be on your menu? I'd love to hear.

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Given the time and effort that are put into Thanksgiving and Christmas, I typically come to New Year's Eve feeling a little burned out. But in years past, despite my mild apathy for the holiday, I still can muster enough energy to put together a simple yet festive New Year's Eve celebration for a handful of close friends using a few simple tips (and using what I have on hand).

To me, nothing says New Year's Eve quite like a color palette of silver and white, reminiscent of the large Waterford ball that drops at midnight in Times Square. To begin I gather up items around the house that work well with this theme. The items that pop to mind include white taper candles, glass candlesticks, silver vases and serving vessels, pieces of our silver-banded china, mercury glass ornaments, and two tall white and silver beaded cone shaped "trees." 

To establish the fresh look of winter and a new year I drape the table in a crisp white linen tablecloth, offset by a silver runner (which is actually a pashmina, given to me as a bridesmaid gift by a close friend). Atop the runner I stagger the serving items, so that guests can approach the table as a buffet, grazing on the finger food throughout the course of the party.

The crowning touch is to hang a collection of sparkly mercury glass ornaments from decorative ribbon, dangling delicately from the chandelier. The mix of mercury glass, coupled with the crystals, lends an element of drama, and is a nod to the ball dropping from the skies at midnight.

With that, we're ready to have a few friends over on New Year's Eve to remember the highlights of the year and welcome what the coming year has to offer. To us, the key to an enjoyable New Year's Eve lies in the low key and low maintenance nature of the celebration. After a month of over the top decorations, preparations, and culinary temptations, a low key evening with a few libations is a perfect change of pace.

Do you entertain on New Year's Eve? Do you have any special touches that you incorporate into your party set up? Any colors or textures that you like to use? 

Tomorrow I'll be talking about creating a quick, no fuss New Year's Eve menu that can be ready in a snap. I hope you'll come back and join me.

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Last year when I set out to decorate, I used a theme featuring fresh greens and pop of bright green ribbon. I liked the fresh swag look so much -- and received so many compliments on them -- that I decided to make swags for the French doors again this year. However, I definitely didn't want to have the same look as last year, and inspired by the Scottish Walk Weekend in Alexandria and our participation in the Designer Tour of Homes, I opted to showcase tartan ribbon as the focal point of this year's fresh greens. 

The scope of the work included making two swags, adding a wreath to each of the three windows, and sprucing up the two cast iron urns with natural elements that had a Christmas flair. I kicked off the project by informing Alex that I would be needing two "roughly twelve inch lengths of wood." Oh where in the world could he find wood? I just haven't a clue. 

After a little grumbling about having "no wood to spare" and something about it being "set aside for safe keeping," he miraculously found two scrap pieces that somehow fit my needs. In addition to the wood pieces, I gathered the supplies I'd need and got to work. These supplies include floral wire, scissors, a hot glue gun, and festive satin ribbon.

I started the project by hot gluing and wrapping the two pieces of wood with a the red satin ribbon.

I first applied several dabs of glue down one side of the first wood piece, and quickly before the glue dried, wrapped the ribbon around the wood. Next, I completed this process for the second piece.

This pop of color gives the swags a good backing to sit against, but also protects the paint on the doors from getting scratched from swinging swags. It also disguises the simple wood support.

Once the sticks were wrapped, I gathered some of the greenery we had picked up when we purchased our tree. In addition to our two Christmas trees, I picked up some branches with long pine needles, a few bundles of western red cedar branches, and some boxwood sprigs at the Heather and Greens sale in Old Town. With all of my lovely greenery ready to go, I got to work laying out my vision.

Starting with the long cedar branches, I gathered several together with floral wire to form a bundle, and then secured them to the wood backing a with a second length of floral wire.

After twisting the floral wire, I could see the next benefit of wrapping the wood in ribbon. The ribbon actually allows the wire to sort of bite into it, keeping it all securely in place.

With the cedar branches in place, I grabbed the long white pine needles in a slightly smaller and shorter bundle and wire tied them together as a bunch, and next secured them to the wood.

Using a small bundle of boxwood braches, I topped off the swag's natural greenery, again with wire. Using several different types of greenery is very important as it offers visual interest through variations in texture and shape.

Finally, I topped the entire swag with a plaid bow, the perfect complement to our participation in the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend.

The final step in the basic assembly was to trim back the tops of the greenery that were protruding from behind the bow.

The final step of the assembly was to hot glue a length of ribbon securely to the back of the swags. Taking this ribbon, I ran it up and over the French doors, affixing it to the back of each door by wiring it to a suction cup. 

I also placed a suction up on the outside of the door to secure the bottom of the swag and prevent it from swinging or banging against the door.

All in all, I'm really happy with how the swags turned out. They add a nice pop of color and texture to the front of the house. 

The scale this year is much larger than in previous years, and I think this really went a long way in making the decorations look great.

Here's a closer look.

Next I turned my attention to the windows. The fact that we have only three front windows makes it easy to make a decent statement without breaking the bank. 

For a bit of a more modern twist, this year I opted to use square shaped boxwood wreaths. When I laid the wreaths out on the floor, Mel was an instant fan.

I opted to keep it simple, and the only thing I added was a tartan bow to the top of each wreath. Using the same ribbon as well as boxwood greenery ties the window decor back to the swags on the French doors.

We hung each wreath from the meeting rails of the sash using a little floral wire and a 3M command strip.

The final step in our exterior decorating effort was dressing up the two cast iron urns. Our existing sky pencils, though we loved them, have been in a bit of a death spiral over the last several months. We felt there was little we could do to save them, so we decided it was time to transplant them elsewhere and choose a new trees for the front. It all started with a trip to our local nursery where we saw many different options.

After much deliberation, we landed on two small spiral evergreens -- a bit of a twist on the traditional Christmas tree. To us, it seems like the perfect fit. 

We expected to pull the old sky pencils with a simple tug, but man did they put up a fight! Their roots had grown down through the middle of the urns and they were nearly cemented into place. The right urn was so completely in place that we needed three people working at once to pull it out.

Once we removed the sky pencil we noticed a sweet potato growing in the soil. This is thanks to the sweet potato vine we had planted. We've heard that a sweet potato appears at the end, but we've never dug it up to verify this claim. 

With the old trees out, we popped the new trees in and added a whole bunch of soil.

Once the trees were in place I started playing with clippings from our Christmas tree, white pine boughs, cedar branches, and several clusters of red berries. After a little back and forth, I think it ended up looking really great.

I was finally able to take a step back and look at our newly planted urns. How grand?

We were both a little sad to see the sky pencils go, but we'll try to give them a better home elsewhere. Plus, we're really happy with our new evergreen friends out front, and their width will still allow for room to plant colorful flowers in the Spring.

Lastly, we added two electric candles to each window, and voila, we're ready for the holidays. Here's a final look at the front of our home. 

We set out to achieve a simple yet elegant look for our home this holiday season, and I think we achieved it. What are you doing to decorate your home, inside and out? Do you gravitate towards the more traditional, or are you going out on a limb with more unexpected choices? 

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Together, We’re Thankful for:

• Our health
• Good friends
• A loving family
• Lulu and Mel having had successful tumor removal surgeries in August
• Living in a country where we’re awarded many freedoms, including political and religious
• Our education
• For discovering Old Town Alexandria back in 2000, and being lucky enough to call it home
• Having had Oliver in our lives, albeit for too short of a time
• Having the means and jobs that allow us to travel to many parts of the world
• Being gainfully employed
• All of you. We’re thankful for those who read and/or comment on Old Town Home, and make this hobby such a rewarding and enjoyable one. We especially appreciate the tips and advice you share, so that we can continue to refine our DIY skills.

Wendy

• Earlier this week, I fell when out for a jog with Lulu and lost control of the leash in the process. Lulu kept on running. I’m so thankful that when I called to her, she stopped, and ran back to me on the sidewalk rather than in the street. I’m also thankful I’m only bruised and not broken.
• Having a spouse that knows how to fix things, and goes along with my hair-brained ideas, i.e. let’s renovate our kitchen even though we have several other large projects already in the works.
• Good television that provides a laugh and/or an escape, including Homeland, New Girl, and Happy Endings.
• My happy places: Napa Valley and London
• Puppies

Alex

• The opportunity to work on our house, and to be able to transform it into the home of our dreams
• Projects that leave me feeling fulfilled, both professionally and personally
• My ability to grow a goatee, which I didn’t realize was possible until this “Movember”
• We believe the thieves that stole our copper down spout have been caught. (More on that later.)
• That our home and our town were spared the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy
• My somewhat patient and accommodating wife, who is my partner in crime and is the reason I do most of what I do including many of my over-the-top home improvement endeavors.

For those of you who are celebrating, we’d like to extend a heartfelt happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. As we officially kick off the holiday season and a new year is just weeks around the corner, do you stop to reflect? What are you thankful for?

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