xp_logs | Hope and Lorna: Planning time (backdated) (Reply)

Hope and Lorna make a plan for the Easter feast.

"I might already have done some looking around online for idea's..." A very faint blush colored Hope hefted a few papers she had printed out.
Lorna put down her binder on the counter and looked over at Hope, "That is good. Nothing wrong with getting a few ideas to get the creativity rolling. What do you have?"

"A few sample menu's, depending on what we want to do and perhaps an activity or two." Hope spread out the paper. "Those are fairly traditional though, like an kind of egg hunt and a few variations on that."

"Menu samples are good. Should we do brunch? Or perhaps a nice evening meal with the activities before we eat? And egg hunt would probably get the most interest. I know I would want to play." Lorna smiled and looked down at the paper.

"There is a reason they are called classics. And there are enough variations to a traditional egg hunt to keep it fresh throughout the years." Hope pulled over a sheet with a few variations described on it. "And I think I personally would go with a kind of late brunch. People who wish to can attend church in the morning and you can time it in a way you can take the best kinds of dishes from both an brunch and more dinner like dishes?"

Lorna smiled at Hope as she spoke, "Sounds like we have a plan forming. More than likely I'll have some breakfast set up for people who get up early and then we can do a mansion early dinner in the afternoon. Both brunch and dinner dishes. How would you set up the eating area?"

Hope tilted her head a moment, considering. "It depends on if we wish to go with a full sit down dinner or more of a buffet style. With the number of people the last one might be more practical and it gives the chance to mingle more. On the other hand, I do find a more formal sit down dinner has it's own charm."

"I am all for a formal sit down." Lorna put a finger to her lips as she thought about this. Getting everyone together for a sit down was a feat in itself. "I think if we were going to go that way we should give enough advance notice to people so they can plan around it."

Hope made a quick note on her notepad. "We can send out a save the date email tonight? Followed with a more formal invitation later this week perhaps. We can actually print those and put it in people's mailboxes."

Lorna nodded. "Email would be good. Probably be best to tape the actual formal invitations to people doors and mail out the ones that don't live here. Saves on postage. Might want to say RSVP by next week?"

"Easter is April 20... so by the 12th? That should give enough time." Hope made another note in her note book, considering. "I have a program on my laptop I can use to design an invitation and we should have decent paper to use in the art room... If we do a full sit down, dinner, how about we make it semi-formal? Though we do have to take the egg hunt in account with that."

Lorna leaned against the counter as Hope continued on with the planning. The girl was a natural. What was she worried about? "It depends if people want to go looking for eggs in skirts, dresses, or slacks. Also you might want to add volunteers to hide the eggs."

The list with notes was steadily growing. "It all depends on how we set up the egg hunt though... It might be less of a concern if we stay indoors, but that does take away part of the fun. We could allow for people to change though. Maybe make the brunch with RSVP and the egg hunt more informal with people just being there at a certain time?"

"The mansion is quite large. And how many eggs would there be to hide? Couple dozen? I am sure we can do most of it around the mansion or limited to the gardens."

"True. So semi-formal it is?" Hope gave the green haired woman a quick glace. So far it almost felt like she was making all of the decisions, but it was supposed to be a cooperation...

"Semi-formal works well." Giving Hope a small smile. "Sounds like everything is coming together nicely. We have the day, the time, the active, a sample menu, invitations that will be set out...Now a location of where you want to set up the eating and the decorations."

"You sure you do not want to look in a few menu's of your own? It are just some things I found online and I am not even sure all the combinations completely work in a culinary way."

"Well lets take a look." Lorna pulled the paper closer to look at the different recipe names. "I think the Lamb is a good choice. Then I can make a dish our fellow vegetarians and vegans. It looks good."

"And somehow it fits well with the theme of Easter." Hope dug through a few of the recipes and showed one. "This one has the first fresh spring vegetables as well. That might be good to add as well?"

Lorna took the recipe and looked at the ingredient. "I have most if not all of these already here. I would make this for sure." Opening up her own binder and opened it up to the month of April that had Lorna's handwriting all over it. "Inventory will be done tomorrow so I will be able to see what we have and don't have. And put together a shopping list."

"We do not quite know yet how many people will joining though..." Hope tapped the pen against her chin thoughtfully. "How about for volunteers in the kitchen? I do not think you can make the whole meal alone. And someone does need to arrange the room etc."

"Some of the stuff I will need not just for Easter." Lorna looked over at Hope, "Oh that is easy. There are several people that are kitchen helpers and some who will help just to get to the food first. Journals are a wonderful thing."

"So that can be marked of the list..." Hope looked over some of her other notes. "This do seem to kind of divide in the kitchen and... well... everything else. Perhaps we can split up some things?"

"It might not be a bad idea to have a schedule of when things need to be done. That would help organize things." Going for her binder and pulling out a blank calendar and handed it over to Hope. "Color coding also helps. But what exactly do you want to split up?"

"Let's see... I would say we could split things in thee main categories... The dinner itself, the setup of the ballroom with decorations and invitations etc and the egg hunt itself. The dinner will probably be the most work on the day itself."

"The ballroom can be decorated the day before. Bribe people with Easter candy and you have an army that could probably finish it up within a couple of hours. Like you said you have a program that can create nice invitation. You could start those tonight and have the finish product by tomorrow? Ready to be printed and mailed out, I have the address of people outside of the manor so I can get those for you. And we just need to get the eggs all ready and those can be probably hidden the night before as well. Will need volunteers for that too."

"Let's see..." Hope pulled over a calender and looked over the dates. "Save the date emails tonight..." Looking over her notes, the calender and what Ms. Dane has said, she pulled out a pencil and started noting things down in a way things could easily be erased and shifted if needed.

Lorna looked over at Hope, "Are you sure you never did anything like this before?"

Hope looked up from where she muttering over the dates. "A dinner party or two on my own, but I did assist my mother with some other events. And how to organize is covered in my books on entertaining..."

Lorna smiled at Hope and leaned on the counter again. "Well I am impressed then. You will do a fabulous job on this Easter event.

She smiled shyly at the compliment and lowered her gaze back to her papers. "I think that should be us doing a fabulous job, Ms. Dane."