I stayed up late Saturday night cooking two crock pots full of chicken breasts and thighs in broth for the chicken and noodles the next day. I boiled the frozen noodles Sunday morning after I got done thickening up the broth with cornstarch. We were just finishing it up as people started to arrive. I got tons of compliments, so either my family and friends really liked my chicken noodles, or they are tremendously talented at bending the truth.
The big issue wasn't so much, whether or not we could feed a whole slew of people, it was more about where the heck all of them would sit. Our house is small, and inviting Tammy's parents, 5 or 6 close friends, and my immediate family added up to 32 invitees counting the kids (We ended up with 24).
We have two couches in the living room, so the two longest walls are taken up with furniture that seats a total of 6 people.
The party was at 12:30
10:30 - I was pulling apart and de-boning chicken while I thickened up the broth into a gravy like consistency for the chicken and noodles
11:30 - Boiling noodles and asking Tammy to keep an eye on them so I could go get some of the plastic lawn chairs from outside that were frozen to the ground from the ice/snow storm that hadn't melted away in two weeks. One of the chairs did not survive.
11:45 - I was knocking the ice of some more lawn chairs to bring inside and wiping them all down with towels. Checked on the noodles, still boiling.
12:00 - There was still not enough room, so as expected, the dining room table had to go. Tammy and I moved it into the hallway. I rolled it down to the spare bedroom where I had to quickly unscrew and disassemble it to fit it through the doorway. It would've been a nice time to have a full charge on my cordless drill. Checked on the noodles, still boiling.
12:10 - More chairs, this time from the garage, no melting snow or ice : )
Noodles, blah blah
12:15 - The noodles were boiling over. Tammy to the rescue.
Two more chairs from outside, snow, ice, towel, blah blah. I raced out and moved our cars out of the way.
12:20 - The noodles are done. We strain one pan, and Tammy's parents arrive. I strain the other pan and mix them all into the crock pots, and my mom and Bob arrive.
12:30 - Hung up the happy birthday sign and started greeting the barrage of family and friends, my favorite part. Thankfully, no one was getting stuck in the snow and ice in our driveway.
12:40 - It's a party. Anna was so happy. Last year, she was intimidated by the big crowd of people, and maybe a little on edge from missing her nap. She was much happier this year, and we scheduled it before her nap, to avoid the same problem all over again.
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