Super Bowl Party Planning
The countdown is on to the big game, Super Bowl XXXIV. So if you plan to throw a big bash, take heed. CBS Sports football analyst Brent Jones and wife Dana Jones visited CBS News' The Early Show to show how to create a Super Bowl party atmosphere guests are sure to remember.
Brent Jones has three Super Bowl rings from his years with the San Francisco 49ers and along with his wife is no alien to big Super Bowl parties.
To make them more than just an afternoon in front of a big-screen TV eating chili, beer and chips, Dana Jones says there are three elements to consider: "Keep it fun, keep it simple and keep it personal."
For her parties she takes the time to make personalized invitations, place settings, banners, pennants and T-shirts using her home computer.
"I basically go a little crazy with my PC and color ink jet printer. It's so easy to get carried away. One year I used my scanner to put Brent's picture on the front of everybody's T-shirt, and put their names on the back. It was a big hit," she says.
Her design ideas come from templates found on the Internet in addition to idea kits fully-equipped with CD-ROM art programs.
Her favorite Web sites are clipart.com and printsville.com. With the addition of heavy paper and a laser printer she says she gets the job done in no time at all.
Her invitations are reminiscent of stadium admission tickets and invitations are shaped like footballs, not to mention food toppers and a banner that looks like a football field.
The Joneses also point out that good football party hosts remember the non-football enthusiasts and that everybody needs to be entertained specially if the game fizzles into a big blowout.
To do that, Brent Jones says he uses his digital camera to take pictures of the guests on game day. Then during halftime, he scans them on a computer and affixes the computer-generated pictures to magnets or makes T-shirt iron-ons to give as gifts before guests depart.
As for the food, they suggest simplicity. Dana Jones says just prepare a buffet of sandwiches and a hearty chili if it's a really cold day, and, of course, she says, personalize the presentation with food toppers with guests' names on them or the names of the opposing teams attached to the top.
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