gala and gloss

So last year we hosted a Super Bowl party and it was such a hit that I have decided to make it an annual thing.  Last year’s party included kids and adults.  We had sliders and individual pizzas, nachos, etc. and a massive TV.  Like I said, it was a hit and we had a blast but this year I want it to step it up!  I am still thinking about specifics but here are my preliminary plans.  Let me know if you have anything great to share.

Food

–Serving food from the home city of the two teams that vying for the title.  For this reason I am rooting for a match-up between the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Jets.  Okay, I know – highly unlikely – but since I am originally from Georgia and my fiance is originally from New York, this match-up would result in food that we both love and the selections would be much easier to make (southern food and nyc classics)  than a match up of say, the Pittsburg Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts (chipped ham and watermelon???. 

–Other food ideas that I like are a baked potato bar (I did this once for a holiday party and it rocked!), chili (easy to please vegetarians too with minor tweaking), cheese fondue (great twist on the typical nacho dip we typically serve).

–I didn’t serve Gatorade last year and I so want to remember to do that this year.  It’s a great drink for the kids and perfect for adults too!

Logistics

–This year I want to set up a second TV for the chatty people (like me)  so that I don’t have to deal with the scowls from the real Super Bowl fans when I am talking about The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills near the big screen.

Entertainment

–Since kids will be in attendance, I like the idea of having pom poms, foam fingers and an activity for them (last year they made their own pizzas and then watched a movie).  Not sure what the activity will be yet though.

–My fiance is a pregame show fanatic but I like the idea of music in the background before the game starts.  Here’s a great playlist suggestion from Evite:

–Great way to get the adults involved:  Fill two bowls/helmets with the names of each player written on slips of paper.  (One bowl for each team.)  Each party-goer chooses a player to root for throughout the game.  I love this idea because it personalizes the experience and has the potential to get everyone involved (even the ones who are there to socialize and not really that into the game – like me).

–Another idea:  Give door prizes for traditional football pool bet wins (i.e. MVP, most points scored, most yards, etc.).

–And my favorite idea:  Commerical score cards.  The commercials are the best part!

–Evite also has the instructions for a game they call Super Bowl Squares.  I posted the instructions here but if you want to see the complete square go to the Evite site.

1. Draw a 10-by-10 grid.
2. You have 100 squares to sell to your guests. Choose a price and let people buy as many squares as they want, but you’ll need to sell all 100 squares. A dollar a square is pretty standard, but you can up the ante if your friends are high rollers.
3. Pass around the blank grid and let people put their initials in as many random squares as they’ve bought.
4. Once all the squares are filled, pull numbers from zero to nine at random to designate the order of the numbers that go along the left and the top of the grid. You’ll want to make sure this is done after the squares are filled and randomly to keep people from only picking the squares with 0′s, 3′s and 7′s. (Seriously, no one will willingly buy 2′s, 5′s or 8′s.)
5. At the end of each quarter, the person whose initials are in the square that matches the last digit of the teams’ scores wins.
6. You may want to split the pot into percentages so that the final score winner gets more than the quarter winners. We give the winners of the first three quarters 20 percent of the pot, and the winner of the final score gets 40 percent of the pot. Above game ideas from: http://www.Evite.com