Part of Perfect Moment Mondays…

On Saturday night, we had eight of our friends over to join us in watching the undefeated New Orleans Saints play the Dallas Cowboys. The Saints are my husband’s, and several of his friends’ home team. While the Saints flag previously adorned a snowman in October, last night it was hung proudly from our balcony, welcoming all believers in miracles inside.

Reagan gets extremely excited whenever we have guests, and last night was no exception. She was bouncing off the walls yelling “Who Dat?! Who Dat?!” all night to the encouragement of our friends. She brought every toy, blanket and thing-a-ma-bob out from her room to share, leaving them in a pile in front of the television. I could never get her to slow down enough to enjoy the scrumptious meal the rest of us gobbled throughout the evening.

Our friends, Stevie and Jennifer, prepared mouth-watering roast beef Po’ Boys with debris gravy and all the fixin’s!

I made my friend, Amber’s recipe for “Mama’s Whipped Shortbread Cookies” while the game was on. Mmmm… mmm!

And followed that with rounds of Tom & Jerry’s. A Christmas tradition in my home growing up. My parents were pretty liberal about letting us share in this “tradition.” But, only one! Still, one of my fondest memories of my Dad is watching him whip up the Tom & Jerry batter and settle into his La-Z-Boy sipping his hot toddy while watching Christmas specials with us on TV.

Because I spent all night in the kitchen, you can see I didn’t take many photos other than of, well, the food. But, I did notice sometime during the third quarter, when it looked like all hope was lost, Reagan running in and out of our bedroom carrying various gifts I had hidden in my closet and handing them out to all of our guests. I asked her what was she doing as I picked up the presents and returned them to the closet.

“Mommy!” she cried, “People want presents!”

Such the entertainer. She obviously knows what the people want. I quickly thought of the candy canes I had also hidden in my closet. I gave her the box and she happily set about distributing them, a huge grin on her face that became contagious.

If the Po’ Boys, shortbread cookies and Tom & Jerry’s weren’t enough to offset the gloom at seeing the Saints undefeated record broken, I’m sure the candy canes did the trick. And that’s what makes my little girl the “Hostess with the Mostest!”