Tony and I hosted our annual holiday party last night, this year dubbing it Snowchella (I should be embarrassed by how much that pleases me, but I am not. I’ve taken every opportunity to use the word “Snowchella” I could over the past month.) I love cooking as much as I love eating (which is a lot), and nothing makes me happier than having my house packed with people and food I adore, so it was a perfect night.

I’ve written before about my tendency to over-commit and overwhelm myself when it comes to throwing parties, so I tried to get a head start with Snowchella. (SNOWCHELLA!) Last weekend, I mapped out a game plan with military-style attention to detail that included a single-spaced, 3-page grocery list. I was like a housewife on speed, only I’m not a wife yet and was only high on sugar from licking the remnants of whatever was left in the bowls from cooking. I consumed an unhealthy amount of cookie dough over the past few days, and am thrilled and relieved to report I have yet to come down with Salmonella.

I began the prep work Thursday, and Tony and I cooked until 2am each night leading up to the party. (I say that not to #humblebrag, but rather because a lot of the blogs I love to follow make entertaining look effortless and for me, it’s just not. I spent Thursday-Sunday afternoon wearing the same sweatpants with frosting in my hair.)

{Fudge-making. Notice the time?}

Over the course of those days, we made fudge, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter Nutella sandwich cookies, cupcakes, fried chicken biscuits, chicken apple sausage pigs in a blanket, burrata crostini, greek salad skewers, brie en croute, kogi beef, curry deviled eggs, truffle popcorn, and rosemary simple syrup. From scratch. (This is the bragging part.)

{Tony slicing the steak}

The party was set to begin at 5:30pm. Yesterday, Tony got a commercial callback for 4:45pm. On a Sunday. (Hollywood is so glamorous, folks!) We frantically called one of our best friends, Justin, who sweetly came over to help me finish getting everything ready. And by “finish getting everything ready,” I mean he assembled the fried chicken into the biscuits and learned on the fly how to make brie en croute, while I traumatized him by running around in curlers and 4-day old sweats while barking orders at him. I like to think it was a fun bonding experience that brought us closer.

{Saint Justin, and my bridesmaid Barbara‘s daughter Matisse}

However, nearly everything went according to recipe and plan. Except for the cupcakes. Last week, my friend Jason and I took a holiday cupcake decorating class at Magnolia Bakery, and I was so excited to reenact my snowflake-styling skills for Tony. Alas, it wasn’t in the cards. It took me 10 minutes to make 2 and, with 46 cupcakes to go, I made the choice to reallocate that time to showering instead. I put the two sad snowflake cupcakes in the corner, and my friend Michael dubbed them the Shame Cupcakes. I would put a picture here, but I ate them at 2am last night to hide the evidence. So instead, I’ll show you a picture of what they would have looked like, from our decorating class:

I had a hard time “being in the moment” at our engagement party, so last night I made an effort to actually enjoy the time with my friends who’d braved L.A. traffic to spend time with us. And it was wonderful. People turned the front of the tree into an impromptu photo booth backdrop, and hung out on the deck that Tony had worked so hard to prep for the party. We’re getting to that age where our friends are becoming parents, and nothing made it feel more like a holiday than having little kids running around in party dresses, sneaking cookies. The entire night made me so happy.

{My favorite #snowchella photo, courtesy of our friend Chad’s photoshopping skills. 2 out of 3 of the people actually attended our party.}

Instead of asking people to contribute to the booze and bites situation, we requested that they bring a new pair of socks or a gently used item of warm clothing, and we’re caravanning to downtown L.A. tonight to distribute everything (along with toothbrushes generously donated by Dr. Steven Lynch DDS) to the homeless. Just look at this haul! We have the best, most generous friends and I’m feeling especially blessed and grateful this holiday season.

Thank you so much for reading! Check back in this week, I’ll be sharing recipes from the party. Happy holidays!