Celebrating the New Year

Happy New Year Friends!!!

Happy New Year!!  I am sure some of you have made some New Year resolutions and some have even broken those resolutions already.  For me my only resolution in 2015 is to always celebrate the New Year with a Party on or around January 15^th!  Now that’s a resolution that will be hard to break J.

Anyone who knows me, know that I like to organize and execute a good party.  From cooking, to baking and drinks selection to color coordination, setting the scene, music selection and dancing, there is no aspect of party planning and execution that is not appealing work to me.  I can hear some of you saying, “you forgot cleaning up after!”  Yep! That was selective amnesia; I too, hate the cleaning up after part, which is why I am still cleaning up from my 36^th Birthday Party many days after the fun stuff.

For as long as I remember, I have always had a Birthday celebration.  Some years, like in in 2011 I had a big ole Fundraising party with a large venue, which I paid an interior decorator to bring my vision to life, a cake that came together so perfectly and tied the colors and party theme together in an exquisite way, courtesy of my dear friend and super talented cake designer Chioma.

I think having some kind of party for my birthday, be it big or small was born in my preteens, when my mother who loved to entertain but hated to cook, found out that her first-born child loved not only to cook but also to bake.  She would ask me to write a list of all the things I needed to cook and bake for my party and she would go to the market and buy all my passionate child heart desired including cake pans of different shapes and sizes.  One year I baked a total of 7 cakes for my Birthday and my mom had a great time giving cakes away to her friends who did not make it to the party.  Yea, most of the guests for my earlier birthday parties were mom’s friends.  I think mom used my birthday party as a New Year’s party for her friends.

Many Years later, I have come to realize that my annual Birthday celebration has become the same for me.  My Birthday is January 15^th and it is close enough to the New Year that by the turn of the year, I am already in the party planning phase and since party planning makes me happy, I start the new year happy, and that happiness spreads to the rest of the year.  So much so, that in 2013 when I skipped my annual Birthday celebration, I got so depressed, I had to take a week off and went on a retreat alone.  Needless to say that 2013 turned out to be the worst year of my life and I swore to never not-celebrate my Birthday again! 

Last year in a very brave move, I took my family (parents, siblings, and children) to Hawaii on a trip that has to go down, as my most expensive vacation till date but it was money happily spent.  Putting a smile on your children’s faces gives you a good feeling but since my kids are still young enough that I know how to put a smile on their faces, it starts to look like an easy (albeit expensive) task, but putting an excited smile on your parents faces is a fantastic feeling, I tell you!

This year, since I am still recovering from that expensive Hawaii trip and I just moved back to Texas, I decided to have a party in my new apartment.  I love the way my low budget vision has come together so far in my new apartment so I did not mind showing it off to family and friends J.  In the first week of the New Year, I picked January 17^th the Saturday after my Birthday as my party day.   Friends and family were invited, the buffet food list was planned, a table was booked at Zanzibar Houston Cos its not a party until I have danced!  The party plans were underway and since party planning makes me happy, I stayed happy the first few weeks of 2015.  Which was a great way to keep the happiness from New Year’s Day!  On my next post, I will tell you all about how I spent my “ME YEAR” J.

My party on January 17^th turned out to be another awesome party even thought I didn’t get to bake the deserts myself.  I have started to get my long abandoned baking skills back in shape baking chocolate cakes, pineapple upside down cakes, a much complimented carrot cake, and a beautiful coconut pineapple cake.  I did all the party cooking myself so didn’t have any more energy to bake.   I had to save some energy for dancing.  There is nothing as horrible as putting together a great party and being too tired to enjoy it.  I have decided to share a few pictures from my beautiful party with you all and to wish you all a great start to 2015!

Stay Blessed and Happy!!  Don’t forget to tune in to hear how I spent the first minutes and hours of 2015.  Tip:  It involves fireworks and not just from the hot kisses J.