Fabulous Army Life

I considered a million options for drinks for the reception and finally decided to keep it simple. Each group only had 45 minutes which included a few comments from my husband and a group photo so I opted for jar dispensers for quick and easy fill-ups. My sixteen-year-old was in charge of this station all day and did a great job mixing up lemonade, cranberry punch, and water with lime, orange, and cranberry. I also had our coffee bar available with disposable coffee cups and Keurig pods displayed.

Hours on Pinterest searching and pinning and deleting and searching some more led to this final menu. The board (with all the recipes plus others that didn't make the cut) can be found here: https://www.pinterest.com/myarmylife/2017-holiday-reception/ . All of the recipes were simple, a few were slightly tedious (think rolling 200 Oreo balls, one package of Oreos at a time ... until you die), but they were fun to make and easy to serve. My amazing friend Missy skewered approximately a million antipasto skewers and was a super fun prep buddy in the kitchen. Even tedious tasks are more fun with a friend! Oreo Truffles with white chocolate candy coating and gold glitter sprinkles Glitter grapes, endive scoops with goat cheese, pepper jelly, and smoked almonds Cucumber cups with red pepper hummus, feta, grape tomatoes and basil Cheeses with pepperoni sausages Antipasto skewers with mozzarella, sliced sausage, and stuffed olives Cherry cheesecake dip ...

A fabulous spouse gave me the idea last year to ask battalions to contribute to the decorating of our family room for the annual Tour of Homes on Fort Sill. I absolutely loved the idea and am eternally grateful to have had spouses willing to jump in and help both years. This year, each of our battalions contributed a 3' tree (provided by me) decorated to represent their unit. I absolutely love them and think this room was --by far-- the coolest thing to see in our home. Tough as Diamonds! 2-4 FA Deep Attack! 3-13 FA Red Dragons! 1-14 FA Steel Warriors! 75th FA Brigade Tough as Diamonds! 2-18 FA Mission Ready! 2-20 FA Deep Strike! 100 BSB Diamond Support!