Fiesta success!

The baptism and party were last night and it was a complete success. The baptism went great except for one part when we couldn't get the gown on McKenna (forget the slip!) and the godfather surprised us by hiring a professional photographer, so I probably won't have pictures up for a few days. It was really special though...she did great and only cried a little bit, considering how tired she was.

The party was fantastic. Everyone raved about how great my food was and the sangria was excellent. However, I made way too much food and sangria...we have so many leftovers. I think it was due in part to a few things...I think that I anticipated that people would eat more than they did (and drink more than they did) and we had three families that were no-shows at the party, so that was thirteen people that I anticipated feeding that didn't come. We have lots of spinach dip leftover. I think what I will do differently next time is NOT duplicate dips. I doubled the spinach dip and tripled the salsa, and now I have tons of both. However, I really hit the nail on the head with the chicken (yay me) and my father-in-law's brisket was a hit as always. Everyone really loved the chicken.

The sangria...it was just awesome. I don't know how else to put it. It went down so easily and everyone loved it, but I should have probably made four gallons instead of six. We have one of those McDonald's-sized beverage coolers, and it was full to the brim with sangria at the beginning of the night. Right now it's about half full. So next time, I'll definitely make a little less. I bought the right amount of soft drinks though, the fruit tray was pretty much gone, and I made the right call on not getting a veggie tray or a cheese and crackers tray.

I had quite a lot of sangria (I stopped counting after my fourth cup) so I'm a little hungover this morning, and P is really tired and sore from all his work getting the backyard in shape and cleaning. We cleaned up for the most part last night, so today all we have to do is just finish washing dishes and put away our partyware. The dogs were confined for the first hour and we let them out around 10:30 when we thought it was safe. They did GREAT. McKenna managed to stay up until about 9:30 and we finally put her to bed...I think that kid was asleep before her head hit the bassinette! She was so pooped. I didn't want her to miss her party, so after I finished heating up all the food and everything, I carried her around for a while so she could be social.

This was my first major in-law hosting, and I think I did great. I feel like I could now host a major holiday dinner, so we'll see about that later. My goddaughter S did show me all the areas of the house that I need to childproof, mainly my cabinets and my ladder shelf that holds my DVDs.

My best friend S and her boyfriend T were here all weekend, and it was SO great spending time with them, although I admit that I really wish I had gotten to spend more time talking to them and not running around doing party stuff. Next time, I'll try to do it better and freeze stuff ahead of time. I took them to the airport this morning, so they are winging their way home as I type. They were SUCH a huge help though...we couldn't have done it without them!

So that was the party! I need today to recover...my head is pounding. At least I knew when to stop. I'll get pictures up as soon as I can!

Oh, in case anyone's wondering about my jalapeno burns, it was like it never happened yesterday when I woke up. Weird, I know.