Baby, you got game

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Reader Ally writes, "Help! I'm the hostess of a baby shower in a few weeks, and I need some game ideas. Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated."

Baby showers can be tough to plan. There are a lot of games out there, but you first need to assess your guests to determine which ones are right for your party. Some people break out in hives at the thought of shower games, while others would be bored without them.

Once you figure out just how showery your group is, you can then plan the types of activities you do. Here are some ideas, depending on the type of shower:

• Full-on thunder shower: Stage silly competitions like blind taste-testing baby food and unscrambling word jumbles out of baby essentials like "bottle," "safety pin" and “bassinet." Use string to guess how big the mom’s belly is, or create trivia quizzes or celebrity games like "Match the famous mother and offspring" (Who's Sean Preston Federline's mommy? Anyone?). And there's always the clothing pin game -- give everyone five pins and take away one every time he or she says "baby," "boy," or "girl."
• Scattered showers: Participation-optional activities keep your guests in their comfort zones while still providing lots of fun at your party. Some ideas: Create a crafting station with paints and decorative stamps that guests can use to decorate Onesies for the baby. Or leave out a stack of diapers and markers so guests can write funny messages for the parents to read when they’re knee-deep in diapers.
• Blue skies: Skip the games in favor of something low-key, like creating an interactive gift for the new parents. Commemorate the special occasion with keepsakes for the new arrival, such as a personalized photo album. Take a photo of each guest with the parent(s)-to-be, glue them into a book, and ask the guest to write a special message to the baby. Or create a guest book where each guest shares a favorite memory with the parents so the baby can one day read about how crazy Mom and Dad used to be.

Just make sure to keep it light and fun. And most importantly: Save time for cake and opening presents!

Your turn! What baby shower games do you love (or loathe)?

Picture Perfect: Photo Place Cards

Look, your wedding guests aren't going to care whether you spend big bucks on calligraphy for your place cards (and if they do, you should get new friends). But they will appreciate the personal touch of the photo place card.

Printing an old snapshot of each guest next to his or her name is a perfect way to honor your nearest and dearest — as well as an instant conversation starter to break the ice at your reception for guests who won't already know everyone at their table.

Don't have a shot of your childhood best friend's date for the nuptials? Email her to tell her how curious you are to see a photo of her new beau. You can also try sites like Facebook or MySpace — if a guest has a page, it probably includes a picture you can copy and save. If all else fails, substitute a photo of someone famous. When a friend who'd just broken up with her boyfriend decided to bring her pal Ross to my wedding at the eleventh hour, it was too late to dig up a close-up, so I went with a glamour shot of David Schwimmer instead.

Read on for instructions on how to make your own...

old turkey? new recipe! Spicy Penne with Turkey

Wrap up a cozy winter get-together with this spicy pasta recipe. I gave a tried-and-true sauce some smoke and fire by adding a chipotle chile, and then I upped the flavor again with sun-dried tomatoes. Think creamy red sauce with attitude.

This recipe calls for leftover turkey, but it works just as well with cooked chicken, sausage or bacon. Mushrooms and spinach would be a nice addition, but however you tweak it, it’s sure to satisfy the craving for something warm and hearty on a cold, dark night.

If you can’t find basil this time of year, substitute chopped parsley — more for color than flavor.

Read on for the recipe...

leftover alert: Turkey Salad recipe

Turkey-cranberry sandwiches — gotta love 'em. I make them year after year, but when I'm entertaining, and still have lots of leftovers to use up, I want to push beyond the sandwich monotony with new flavors.

This year, I came up with a low-fat (hold the mayo!) turkey salad that is great all by itself or scooped onto slices of sourdough. For a really light lunch (and a pretty presentation), serve it in butter lettuce cups.

Read on for the recipe...

this could be you

I don't feel at all shameless for making this Evite plug. Get this: We want to send you and a plus 1 to Hawaii. Ha! wa! ii! True story!

To thank you awesome people for planning your holiday parties with Evite, we're going to send 5 lucky Evite party hosts (and a guest) on a fabulous post-holiday vacation. Doesn't that sound like a great way to detox from all the holiday stress and start 2008 off right?

Here's what you get:

• A 5-day, 4-night trip to a Hawaiian island of your choice
• Luxury accommodations at a 4-star hotel
• Airfare for 2
• A lavish spa day for 2
• $1,000 in spending cash

Here's how you get it:

To be eligible to win, send an Evite invitation for your holiday party and add this email address to your guest list: holiday@evite.com

Learn more about rules and prizes

advent (ageous) calendar

Every year around this time, my dad gives me an advent calendar. The kind with chocolate inside, of course. Thanks, Dad! As a kid I used to sneak into my brother's room and shake his calendar around until the chocolates fell to the bottom so I could make a small hole, fish them out and eat them without his knowing.

That's about as crafty as I've gotten with advent calendars, so I was blown away by this homemade version I saw on Craftster — check it out for instructions on how to make it and fill it with fun stuff like cookie cutters and ornaments. So cool.

If you don't celebrate Christmas or aren't feeling particularly advent-ageous this year, you could make a similar calendar as a gift to celebrate an upcoming birthday, anniversary, wedding or other special event.

why are you not eating pie?

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Hey, it's Thanksgiving. Shouldn't you be talking to your grandma, watching football or eating something? Well, while you're here, please post a comment with what you learned this holiday. What was the best part of the meal? Which board game was the most fun? What do you swear you won't do next year?

You could also get a head-start on planning your holiday party. We have lots of great new holiday invitations designs, like the one above. And if you want more inspiration, check out our party-planning guides:

• Winter Wonderland Party
  
• Christmas Party
• Hanukkah Party
• Kwanzaa Party
• New Year's Eve Party

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Light Up Your Table

Bypass the brass candlesticks and the Indian corn table decorations. This Thanksgiving, hand your guests knives and let them work out any holiday-related angst … and create your centerpiece at the same time!

Read on for how to create this new take on that old Halloween favorite, the jack-o'-lantern...

T-day side dish: mushroom casserole recipe

Here’s a new addition to the T-day table: mushroom casserole. When it comes to veggies, yams get all the glory on Thanksgiving, but November is prime mushroom season, and all sorts of luscious, wild varieties are popping up in grocery stores.

Venture beyond the button and you’ll experience a wealth of flavors and textures. This dish, courtesy of my aunt Kathy, is bursting with shiitakes, crimini and oyster mushrooms, which have an intriguing peppery taste. But you don’t have to stick with these three. Choose whatever looks good to you.

Read on for the recipe...

Vegetarian T-Day Entree recipe

Looking for a new veggie dish to serve at Thanksgiving? Say adios to green bean casserole and hello to this polenta and black bean extravaganza. There's no reason meat eaters should have all the flavorful fun on Thanksgiving. Finding a vegetarian entrée to replace turkey can be a daunting task, but this hearty dish combines two heavy-hitters of the season, squash and corn, with a little south-of-the-border kick. Chili powder, black beans, Soyrizo — if only those pilgrims could see us now.

If you're not familiar with Soyrizo, it's a soy-based substitute for chorizo, a spicy Mexican pork sausage. I'm not a big fan of fake meat, but this one tastes just as good as the real thing, and it doesn't have the weird chewy bits.

Read on for the recipe...