Lazy girl caprese salad.

I talked Micah into letting me throw a little Christmas party this year.

If these walls could talk, I'm pretty sure they would beg for parties.

This house was made for entertaining.

I like to think of all the soiree's that have occurred here in the last 111 years.

I didn't want a potluck party, everything these days is a potluck (which I really do appreciate most of the time!)

But I wanted it to be a no-strings-attached, come-empty-handed party where people could relax and enjoy themselves without having to think about making something.

I may have invited 40 families because I knew so many people would have scheduling conflicts or be out of town and I wanted to ensure we would still have a crowd.

We ended up with 10 families making it, which I thought was a perfect number--roughly 40 people give or take.

We had a fun, crazy, busy, full house......lots of food.....kids everywhere.....and I got the party bug out of my system until April when it's birthday week for the little Rue's.

I didn't want the party preparation to be stressful so I did all of the desserts ahead of time, used disposable paper products (sorry earth!) and kept food prep simple the day of.

(Well...simplish. I would like to think I'm a minimalist, but let's be real here...I'm not. I am trying though).

My plan was to some make caprese salad skewers that I saw in Southern Living. (Thanks Nana for keeping me in the southern loop!) They had a cherry tomato, a bit-sized mozzerella ball, and a large tortellini on a skewer drizzled with balsamic vinegar and basil. Very festive and easy.

But in the end, I was too lazy to make skewers so I changed my plan and bought smaller versions of the above ingredients and threw it all in a bowl.

And I may have fallen in love and found something that I want to eat every day for lunch.

In a bowl combine:

1 container of grape tomatoes sliced in half
1 container of mozzerella pearls (found in the deli section)
1 box of cheese tortellini cooked al dente

Over the top I drizzled some balsamic vinegar (use the good stuff for this--something imported from Italy) and some basil. Mix together and refrigerate until eating time.