Parties, like everything else, are looking a little different these days. I am so impressed with US. US, meaning human beings. The creativity that has jumped out of moms and dads and school teachers and bosses and boyfriends and churches these days has been unbelievable!! We have been to a few drive by birthday celebrations which are surprisingly fun and then we had a surprise pancake breakfast to honor Christian, Sadie’s husband, who graduated from Auburn University. 

Let’s talk about that for a minute because it’s a super easy, quick party to throw, so you just might want to do one yourself. 

First of all, Sadie enlisted the help of her family, of course. She told everyone to keep it quiet because she wanted to surprise Christian on the morning that he was scheduled to graduate. So, we all kept it a secret. She told Christian to sleep in that morning, which he gladly did. 

The party was to start at 10:00 so I picked up Mamaw Jo (my mom) at 9:15 and we headed to the Sadie’s house. It’s just a ten minute drive, but keep in mind, we were doing the cooking and it was to start at 10:00. (Proof that this is an easy party.)

At soon as we got there, Brittiany (college girl who lives with us) got busy decorating the kitchen with grad decorations. Sadie had already put out some adorable pictures of Christian growing up and balloons, so we just added a few finishing touches. 

Mamaw’s job was to make her famous coffee punch. It’s a favorite of Christians. Well, of everyone’s, so it was definitely in high demand. She makes it every Christmas. Here’s the recipe:

1. 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water–Mix with hot water until blended. (boiled water works well)
2. Add in ¼ cup of instant coffee (she uses Folgers, but anything work)
3. Mix with ½ gallon of vanilla and ½ gallon of chocolate and 1 gallon of milk. You can us a mixer to blend it well. (She just puts it right in the punch bowl and mixes it.)
4. Then, sit back and listen to everyone “ooh and ah” about how great it is!

Sadie and I got busy making two-egg cheese omelets. You would have thought we worked at waffle house. We were turning out the omelets! We cut them in half (which was plenty for everyone), put them in the warmer and started on the pancakes. 

I have a griddle that cooks nine pancakes at a time, so we made a big batch of pancakes, some without and some with blueberries. (I just use Bisquick or any pancake mix you like.) We served strawberries and bananas as well. And….heated syrup. In our family, we NEVER serve pancakes without heating the syrup. My secret to the best pancakes is while they are cooking, I pre-slice the butter. When the pancakes are done, I put the butter in the center before I take them up to serve. Then, I stack them on top of each other and serve them two at a time. (Yes, I love a good, buttery pancake.)

Since there was a small number of us, we used the “real” dishes, which made it more festive and served the coffee punch in a beautiful punchbowl. (Never mind all we were having was omelets and pancakes. IT WAS A PARTY!!)

Then it was time to wake up Christian. Bella got the phone ready to play Pomp and Circumstance as he walked into the kitchen and we all hid in various places. As soon as he got to the kitchen, we jumped out and yelling surprise. And he truly was! He said he had no idea Sadie was planning all of that. 

The thing I want you to hear from this is we all pitched in and it wasn’t a burden for anyone. I’m the absolute world’s worst at asking for help. Okay, I take that back. That honor goes to my mom, which is probably why I’m so bad at it. But, when it comes to a party, we know how to work together and ask for help. 

Don’t be afraid to throw a party and ask others to help. They actually love being asked to and it makes the party more fun when more are involved. 

Clean up was easy too as everyone pitched in to clean up. We started that party at 9:15 and we were sitting at a table eating at 10:15. Since, we’re still quarantined together with no place to go, we sat around and listened to stories of Korie and Willie’s college years. That, of course, was the best part! Just sitting around laughing and talking. 

Now, that’s a party.

I know we’re still not quite out of this quarantine thing, but we’re getting close. Maybe it’s time to plan a party!!