SmallWorld's Housewarming Party Day 1

I love to be the party house. Back when we were first married, Dr. H and I had the gathering place on Poplar Street--first a big, old house and then an apartment. We loved for friends to pop over any time, and meals were, more often than not, shared with several friends. Our thrift-store sofa got slept on a lot, as did our spare bedroom floor.

Nowadays we're a little more sophisticated. We have a dining room table that seats a dozen and a whole lot more food than we did back then. We also have a guest apartment, and most of our thrift-store furniture has been relegated to the basement, waiting for one of our kids to claim it someday for their own apartment. Now our parties are less spontaneous and definitely less frequent. But friends still drop by unexpectedly or by invitation, and I love that. (It helps that we live 2 minutes away from a major retail area.) I always want people to feel comfortable in our home.

So what's all this have to do with my blog? Well, obviously, I need to have a party to celebrate my new home here at SmallWorld at Home! And I might as well invite friends over to my vacation house, SmallWorld Reads, too.

Of course it's traditional to bring gifts to one's new home, and I know you are wondering what to bring. So each day, I'll be asking for something different. And I can't serve you scrumptious hors d'oeuvres and frothy punch, so I'm going to give you gifts, instead.

So here's how it works (you can copy and paste all this on your blog for 20 points plus all the points below!) :

Week-long Gifts (leave me a comment to say you've done any or all of these, each time you do)
1. Mention SmallWorld's Housewarming Party on your blog, and you'll get 5 points each time you do!
2. Put my party sign on your blog somewhere, and you'll get 10 points.
3. Subscribe to SmallWorld and get 2o points!
4. Post the day's Party Favors on your blog for 10 points each day.
5. And by the way, you can jump in the party on any day, and you can even go back and do the previous days if you missed them the first time around! Our door is always open to new friends!

Day 1 Party Favors: Bring Me Food
Cooking is part of my daily life. I don't necessarily love cooking, but I do love food. Occasionally I post recipes here on my blog. I am always looking for new recipes, as we are always searching for that new perfect food.
Your gift to me: Either in the comments here or on your own blog (and leave the link in the comments), tell me about your favorite party fare. What kinds of appetizers or other good foods or desserts are your standbys for parties?

That's all! I am always looking for new recipes, so share your recipe cards!

(What? You want to know about the prizes? OK, here's how this works. One thing that is essential to my home: lots of books. And books are important in my blogworld, too; that's why I have a separate home for my reading record. Following along with the book theme (and, well, because I'm terrible at mailing packages!), I'll be tallying up all your points, and I'll be awarding amazon.com gift cards to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners—just in time for the new school year! So get busy posting!)

Click here for Day 2's Party Favors!
Click here for Day 3's Party Favors!