• 11Dec

  Your New Year’s Eve Party

  Creative Writing No Comments
  

  Host YOUR OWN New Year's Party

  Planning a New Years Eve Party in Your Home
  
  There are both advantages and disadvantages to
  planning a New Years Eve party in your home.

  At Home Advantage: You have a greater amount
  of freedom in terms of food and beverage choices,
  decoration options and even the type of entertain-
  ment you are able to offer.

  At Home Disadvantage: Your property or posses-
  sions may be damaged by the guests, you are
  responsible for the cleanup of the party and
  it can be difficult to control when guests
  leave the party.

  
  
  Not At Home Advantage: Hosting a New Years Eve party in a restaurant or catering hall means
  that you will have some assistance in preparing and serving the food, you don’t have to
  worry about cleanup and you have very few obligations during the party.

  Not At Home Disadvantage: You will be limited in the hours of the party, there may be
  some restrictions placed on the entertainment and there will also likely be limitation
  on the food and beverages you can offer your guests.

  Given these advantages and disadvantages as well as the costs associated with
  hosting a New Years Eve party in a restaurant or catering hall, many people
  opt to host their New Year's Eve party in their home.

  When planning a New Years Eve party in your home it is very important to carefully
  consider your guest list. This is important because you should limit the number of
  guests you invite according to the size of your home and the rooms in your home
  you wish to use for the party. For example you may have an extremely large house
  but if you wish to limit the party to the kitchen and dining room you should
  consider limiting the number of guests you invite to a number which will fit
  comfortably in these rooms. Or if you plan to use your entire house for the party,
  you should still consider how many people will fit comfortably for activities such
  as eating, dancing and socializing. 
  
  Another factor to consider when planning a New Years Eve party in your home is how
  you plan to entertain your guests. Hiring a band or DJ or playing your own music is
  one of the most popular entertainment options for a New Years Eve party. If you plan
  to have a band or a DJ you should consider providing a dance floor for your guests.
  The dance floor does not have to be big but it should be large enough for at least
  some of your guests to dance and have a good time. Another entertainment option is
  showing a series of movies. The movies can follow a particular theme or they can
  just be fun movies you think the majority of your guests will enjoy. If you are
  planning to entertain your guests in this manner you should consider renting a movie
  projector if you do not already have one to make the movie viewing experience more
  pleasurable. You should also consider seating options and should ensure you have
  enough seating for each guest with an unrestricted view of the screen. 
  
  Another factor to consider when planning a New Years Eve party in your home is how
  you plan to deal with potential problems such as spilled food and drinks. If you
  have new and expensive carpeting or flooring, you might be very concerned about
  this issue. One option is to take preventative measures by covering flooring which
  would be permanently damaged by spilled drinks or food. This will likely not be
  very attractive and many guests prefer to only offer food and drinks in areas of
  the home where spills will not be extremely damaging. As the host of the party,
  you should be prepared to deal with spills. Your plan could include cleaning all
  spills thoroughly as they occur in attempt to minimize the risk or permanent
  stains or to do only a quick cleanup and deal with stains after the party.

  Related articles

  • Rihanna to perform at VIP New Year’s Eve party in Barbados (examiner.com)
  • Party with Kim Kardashian for $20,000 on New Year’s Eve (celebs.gather.com)
  • The Perfect New years Eve Party (davidshapiro.wordpress.com)
  • New Year’s Eve Party at Niagara Falls 2011/2012 (socyberty.com)

  Happy New Year to everyone around the Globe…

  

  Tags: Entertainment, New Years Eve, Planning

• 23Oct

  PRESENT AT A HANGING

  Creative Writing No Comments

  PRESENT AT A HANGING

  

  An old man named Daniel Baker, living near Lebanon, Iowa, was
  suspected by his neighbors of having murdered a peddler who had
  obtained permission to pass the night at his house. This was in 1853,
  when peddling was more common in the Western country than it is now,
  and was attended with considerable danger.

  The peddler with his pack traversed the country by all manner of
  lonely roads, and was compelled to rely upon the country people for
  hospitality. This brought him into relation with queer characters,
  some of whom were not altogether scrupulous in their methods of
  making a living, murder being an acceptable means to that end. It
  occasionally occurred that a peddler with diminished pack and
  swollen purse would be traced to the lonely dwelling of some rough
  character and never could be traced beyond.

  This was so in the case of “old man Baker,” as he was always called.
  (Such names are given in the western “settlements” only to elderly
  persons who are not esteemed; to the general disrepute of social
  unworth is affixed the special reproach of age.) A peddler came to
  his house and none went away - that is all that anybody knew.

  Seven years later the Rev. Mr. Cummings, a Baptist minister well
  known in that part of the country, was driving by Baker’s farm one
  night. It was not very dark: there was a bit of moon somewhere
  above the light veil of mist that lay along the earth. Mr. Cummings,
  who was at all times a cheerful person, was whistling a tune, which
  he would occasionally interrupt to speak a word of friendly
  encouragement to his horse. As he came to a little bridge across a
  dry ravine he saw the figure of a man standing upon it, clearly
  outlined against the gray background of a misty forest.

  The man had something strapped on his back and carried a heavy
  stick - obviously an itinerant peddler. His attitude had in it
  a suggestion of abstraction, like that of a sleepwalker.
  Mr. Cummings reined in his horse when he arrived in front of him,
  gave him a pleasant salutation and invited him to a seat in
  the vehicle - “if you are going my way,” he added. The man raised his
  head, looked him full in the face, but neither answered nor made any
  further movement. The minister, with good-natured persistence,
  repeated his invitation. At this the man threw his right hand forward
  from his side and pointed downward as he stood on the extreme edge
  of the bridge. Mr.Cummings looked past him, over into the ravine,
  saw nothing unusual and withdrew his eyes to address the man again.

  He had disappeared!

  The horse, which all this time had been uncommonly restless, gave
  at the same moment a snort of terror and started to run away.
  Before he had regained control of the animal the minister was at
  the crest of the hill a hundred yards along. He looked back and
  saw the figure again, at the same place and in the same attitude
  as when he had first observed it.

  Then for the first time he was conscious of a sense of the super-
  natural and drove home as rapidly as his willing horse would go.

  On arriving at home he related his adventure to his family, and
  early the next morning, accompanied by two neighbors, John White
  Corwell and Abner Raiser, returned to the spot. They found the
  body of old man Baker hanging by the neck from one of the beams
  of the bridge, immediately beneath the spot where the apparition
  had stood. A thick coating of dust, slightly dampened by the mist,
  covered the floor of the bridge, but the only footprints

  Were those of Mr. Cummings’ horse!

  In taking down the body the men disturbed the loose, friable
  earth of the slope below it, disclosing human bones already
  nearly uncovered by the action of water and frost. They were
  identified as those of the lost peddler.

  At the double inquest the coroner’s jury found that Daniel Baker
  died by his own hand while suffering from temporary insanity,
  and that Samuel Morritz, the peddlar, was murdered by some
  person or persons to the jury unknown.

  

  Tags: ghosts, halloween, hanging

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