PARTY PREP II

We have our party prep well under way---The Paminna Cheese is made. Also the filling for the Jalapeno Rolls, the two Corned Beef Cheese Balls, the ginger-soy dip for the potstickers, as well as the filling, the Garlic/Dill dip for the crudite platter, and the Artichoke Heart Gratin.

The dining table is awash in sparkly-bright glasses and plates and cups, sherbet glasses for the trifle, some silver trays and bowls I polished this week, and the last load of glasses and trays and bowls is still in the dishwasher.

Cloths and napkins are pressed, and the little pound-and-a-quarter pans of fudge with their cute snowman lids are stacked upstairs on the living room dresser. We'll pick up the fresh green things and the fruit tomorrow, wash and cut and bag them, and make the stuffing for the Devilled Eggs and the chicken salad. Chris will do the errands and toast the pecans, and we'll get the cloths on and the skirts on the chairs.

We'll have a little buffet for the savories, and the trifle bowl and tree of Lemon-Curd Muffins and Reese's Cupcake Brownies will be in the wide pass-through, with a little tea-stand of Paminna Cheese sandwiches, cucumber hearts, and nutbread-with-pears on each table.

There will be wine and mulled cider and a cranberry cocktail in the upstairs kitchen while people gather, and then they will all come downstairs for tea. Pitchers of iced tea and fruit water and pots of Earl Grey, as well as the percolator, will be down here in my kitchen.

OOPS---I forgot to pick any mint. I wonder if the frost got it---it's been in the Twenties all day.