Shower time!

I just went to my 3rd of the five showers I plan to attend this "season." I say season because it seems all of my friends celebrated the end of summer by getting themselves impregnated by their adoring husbands, so the season of baby is upon us. Just like the birds and the bees, my friends are bringing on the babies this spring so it's time to set up the list of MUST DOs when it comes to future showers. Here are my top four:

1. Plan your menu ahead of time and remember, you're serving a meal for adults, they're hungry and if you have any wine on the menu, people will need to eat!

That baby's not here yet folks so that means your all adult guest list is going to be hungry for adult food. Leave the peanut butter finger sandwiches to junior and let's get some real food on the table. If it's a late morning, early afternoon event, quiche and salad, with fruit tarts and fresh berries and yogurt is perfect for your group. That plus mimosas equals full bellies who are ready to face the day. If you're doing a lunch or mid-afternoon shower, try a caesar or Greek salad with chicken salad sandwiches and salmon tarts, cupcakes and champagne cocktails to satisfy lunch hour. Or if you're one to shower at night, try something a little more substantial, crab cakes and mini beef wellington pastries, or have some fun with cheese burger sliders and pulled pork sandwiches with crisp cilantro slaw. Finish off your menu with decadent flowerless chocolate cake slices and spiked coffee to start your evening off right. Finally, by all means, cater the party if you're not one to cook! I for one know it's hard work to make it all yourself, but it was worth it for me and I had the time and desire to do it. That being said, it's a great idea to order from your favorite restaurant and see what they would suggest for your group.

2. Decorate with fresh flowers, they go a long way.

Not only do they fit into any color scheme, flowers offer the perfect "final" touch element to your home or table. Mini roses and babies breath make perfect accents to your table and they can double as prizes or favors should you choose to offer them to your guests.

3. Have games as an option but don't stop the party to play.
If your shower is trucking right along, people are eating and drinking, having a great time, then by all means, let it continue. Sure, games can be fun, but nothing kills a shower or a any get together for that matter like someone stopping the fun to guess how many safety pins are in the jar. I like the idea of setting up stationary games on a table and having guests have the option to play or not play. Guess baby's birthday, Guess how many _____are in the jar, and Baby madlibs are great for getting guests in the baby shower spirit without making them feel like they have to participate in an "active" game. Trivias and baby bingo are great ways to get people settled in once they've gathered to watch gift opening activities. It incorporates the guests and allows them to get excited over baby bottles and countless receiving blankets.

4. Open gifts, but maybe just a little.
Everyone knows that the purpose for showers is not only to celebrate the excitement and joy of new parents welcoming baby into their lives, but also to shower them with the many things that they are sure to need for their upcoming addition. However, opening breast pumps, bottle sterilizing racks and receiving blankets by the dozens can be a yawn for guests, especially if you have a larger shower and there are piles of gifts to open. I recently saw a shower where guests were asked (via the invitation) to bring a book for baby's first library or momento for the mom to be, and that is what she opened in front of her guests. Any gifts that were purchased from the registry were sent to the parents' home so that they could start setting up their nursery for baby. It seemed like the perfect way for guests to personalize a gift and helped keep it a little interesting for all to see.

This is of course, just a start to what can help make a baby shower a must attend. The final to do is to have fun. It's a time of celebration and joy, so clink your glass of champagne against their glass of pink tinted lemonade, and help them set off on their epic journey as parents. They might just extend the offer to hold your shower in the future.

Paper please

I’m a list person. I like to sit down with a notebook, write my to dos out neatly and then cross them out with black marker so that they can disappear from my sight forever. In a somewhat related reveal, I also write checks. Sure I check my account balance online just like everyone else, but I also keep my checkbook balanced and written on that little ledger. Why bother when our banks are doing it for us? Why write a list when you can just pop it into your smart phone and then hit delete? I do this because I’m holding on to the last days of paper.

I’m mourning the days when books and magazines, coloring books and post-it notes were the vehicle for the words and thoughts of others. It’s not that I don’t partake in the varieties of the world wide web, it’s just that, I’m not ready to release my beloved print into the cold dark night.

I often say that the reason I became an English major was because I loved to read. This is true enough, but the real reason is that I loved books. I dreamed of having my own personal library with floor to ceiling shelves filled with books, a ladder to carry me to the top where the precious treasures of first editions could sit out of harm’s reach (aka my destructive paper loving dog, Bailey), a comfortable, well-lit place to read, with a fireplace, or at the very least, a very powerful space heater at my disposal. I’m filled with nostalgia at the thought of the many books I’ve read to the point of having to tape their sad, hardback covers. I am saddened to think that one day children will not know that the stories they love were not always backlit on mommy’s new kindle, but rather, they once lived inside the musty hardback book on her shelves.

The funny thing is that I am describing the very reason why people are embracing online, or downloadable media. Who has the storage anymore for boxes of books? I myself cried as I dropped off 10 boxes to my local library when I realized I couldn’t possibly move them cross-country let alone store them in my new one bedroom apartment. (I have since learned about media mail and moved into a bigger place so my sorrow runs deep as I think of the books I sacrificed to the Sanford Public Library.) Who wants to spend their nights propping up a 1000 page paperback that will tear and no doubt give you “mommy’s wrist” as you cradle it in bed? Why comb through the shelves of a bookstore searching title after title for something you might like when Amazon will kindly put together a list of “things you might enjoy based on your recent searches?”

I do. I want all of those things. If only because it reminds me that there was a time when the art of writing was treasured. To own a book was a privilege not a chore. I want a place for my lists and my checkbook, and I hope it’s next to my very worn out copy of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.”