Our Christmas Eve Party...and how I almost ended up in the ER...

First of all I want to say hello to my new followers. We've reached 100! Woohoo! I will be hosting a giveaway very soon, so stay tuned!

So how was everyone's Christmas?

We stayed in Germany for the holidays, making it the first Christmas that either of us had ever spent apart from one of our families. It could have been weird, but thankfully we have a great group of friends here who helped us celebrate and we ended up having a wonderful Christmas.

We hosted a Christmas Eve party at our house. It was our first party in our German home and turned out to be a great success. Except for the fact that I almost cut my fingers off, but Ill get to that later.
Our idea for a Christmas Eve dinner party started off small with only about 10 people invited. Our house is tall and narrow, not really big enough to fit a ton of people for dinner, but somehow our little dinner party grew to 21 people, 18 of which showed up. We made it work.

I baked and prepped for several days prior to the party. On the menu was:
Two baked whole chickens
Homemade Gouda Mac & Cheese
Sourdough Bread Turkey Sausage Stuffing
White Christmas Chili
Crescent Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Cornbread
Chocolate Snowballs
No Bake Cookies
Striped Delight
Cookies and Cream Fudge
Puppy Chow

Our friends were awesome and helped out. They brought:
Ham, Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Apple Vegetarian Stuffing, Goat Cheese Dip and Asparagus Rolls.

Doesnt all of that sound delicious?! It was! J & I have been enjoying the leftovers. Ill be sharing some of the recipes with you over the next few weeks.

Now onto the finger cutting and my almost trip to the ER...
Cut #1: While I was cutting up the sourdough bread for the stuffing, I was distracted by J & Reese. I sawed right into my left thumb. Through the fingernail and into the skin above. It looked horrible, and bleed off and on for the rest of the night, but it didnt even hurt when it happened. I probably could have used a stitch, but I used super glue instead.
Cut #2: About an hour before the party started I opened the cranberry sauce (yes, it was from a can and yes, I like it, so no judgement please). I was holding the can, attempting to empty it, when I turned my head to talk to J. Somehow my pinky (on the same hand as the other cut) came into contact with the open lid and sliced it. Major ouch. This one hurt like hell and while short, it was very deep. It literally bled for over six hours straight. I tried holding pressure with my hand over my head, holding an ice cube on it, using a pressure dressing- all the tricks I knew, but nothing would stop the bleeding. I knew I needed stitches- three or four- but I really didnt want to go to the ER on Christmas Eve! I finally remembered that I had some steri strips and used those to help close the wound. I put a bandaid over it and went to bed hoping I didnt bled all over the sheets during my sleep. All this for a little cut on my pinky! Thankfully the steri strips worked and I didnt have to go to the ER the next morning, despite needing stitches. Next Christmas I think Ill ask J to cut the bread and open all of the cans!

It was our first true White Christmas as we still have about six inches of snow on the ground, topped off with an inch of ice. On Christmas Day we slept in, opened presents, ate lunch and went over to a friends house for food and games. We came home, video chatted with our families and played our new Wii game while drinking wine and eating cheese & olives. We had a fantastic time. While we missed our family and friends from home, it was a great Christmas!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!