Favorite Things Party…

If you’ve known me for very long, you know that I love an excuse to throw a fun party and play hostess for an afternoon. (You may remember a couple that I’ve blogged about in the past, like the surprise mustache party & the Cinco de Mayo murder mystery…both a hit!) I knew I wanted to do a little something to get my teacher friends together to catch up & celebrate the season, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what.

And then, it hit me.

Or rather….I pinned it. Good ol’ Pinterest strikes again.

The idea was pretty simple…host a “Favorite Things” party! Start by inviting some of your favorite friends, ask them to bring their favorite snacky Christmas foods, and swap small gifts. But more on that later…

Here are a few pics from our part-ay!

The table…set with a tablecloth, cake platter, and cute little paper plates…all from my favorite store – Target! 😉

Didn’t make the cake myself…got it from my fav grocery shopping store – HEB! It was so rich…like wedding cake…but very tasty!

Strawberry soda dressed up with a little yarn & glitter…

Drink Bar…strawberry soda, sweet tea, hot Keurig drinks, and a little something called “Hot Vanilla.”

Funny story about the “Hot Vanilla”…I pinned it as well, but when I tried to access the link it warned me that it might lead to ‘inappropriate content.’ Bahaha…turned out it really just led to a recipe for hot vanilla (as opposed to hot chocolate) but we decided at the party that it would make a great stripper name! 😉

Everyone’s gift bags…personally decorated with doilies, yarn, and a printed chalkboard blessing.

Little to-go boxes to share all the sweet goodies everyone brings…Lord knows I didn’t need it all left at my house! I didn’t take a picture of all the sweet things the girls brought over…too busy eating I guess…

For the gift exchange, each girl was instructed to bring 5 duplicates of one of her “Favorite Things.” I didn’t get the best pic, but we definitely walked away with a pretty sweet haul. I gave everyone a chevron-striped pashmina…complete with a lesson in scarf tying! My friend J made t-shirt scarves for everyone – so adorable! (Mine had a little home-made rosette as a ‘thank you’ for hosting. Loved that little touch!) L brought her fav mascara, which I’ve already used…and loved! My college friend A gifted everyone with her favorite candy bar – chocolate is a girls best friend! And K wrapped up a $5 gift card to Starbucks for each lady. Perfect!

Before a couple of the husbands crashed our party, we wrapped up the talking and gifting and eating with a “Favorite Things” game. Each girl completed a quick survey (favorite Christmas movie, song, drink, etc.) and then I quizzed everyone on who said what. The winner received a popcorn tin (also one of my favorite things…last year I went through 5 of them!)

We decided that the “Favorite Things” party is…one of our new favorite things! Definitely hoping that this one will become a yearly tradition…if only we could get Oprah to join in on the fun! *wink*

One thing I didn’t remember to get…a picture of all of my favorite girls! 😦

KEEP CALM & CELEBRATE YOUR FAVORITE THINGS!

Christmas Recap

Why hello there! I last posted on December 23rd, with full intentions of sharing a great Christmas video with you guys on the 24th and a mini-Christmas card from my fam to yours on the 25th. It would have looked something like this…

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Hope your day is full of love, laughter, and joy from the Lord!

Then of course yesterday would have been a short recap, a thank you to my fam for a wonderful Christmas, and more well wishes. As you can see…those posts didn’t happen. 😛 I won’t apologize though, because I was caught up in enjoying the company of family and friends and celebrating the season…and I feel that time was very, very well spent.

So today my plan is to snowball it and hit all of those things in one, and since this blog is as much a keeper of memories for me as it is mindless reading entertainment for you (or at least I hope it is…on a good day…humor me here!) I hope you won’t mind!

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Christmas Eve Eve…a new holiday tradition!

As it was going to be my first Christmas away from home, and our first Christmas without my Pappy, Mom decided it would be good for us to have some new things to look forward to this year. And let me tell ya, once she sets her mind to something she goes all out! New table linens, the fine china, a tasty menu, and a candelit table arrangement from the florist. We had fun getting it all set up, there were only a couple of small fires to put out were dinner was concerned (I wish I could say that was figurative…), and my sweet husband even arrived an hour and a half earlier than I expected!

 After dinner we played games, watched the video I was telling you about, and did a lot of talking & laughing. It really was so much fun, and a holiday tradition I’m already looking forward to for next year!

Christmas Eve…

I love Christmas morning (or in this case, Christmas Eve morning) with my family. Usually there is a fire going in the woodstove, and we all relax together and take turns opening our gifts, looking through our stockings, and seeing what Santa left under the tree. This year was our first with Huxley, and luckily I had planned ahead and had a great gift for him to open…one that he could chew on while we opened our gifts!

Since I didn’t know what to ask for this year, pretty much everything I received was a surprise! I got all the essentials…fuzzy socks, jewelry, a new calendar, pretty candle, big bag…what more does a girl need? Except maybe a gift card to PF Changs, a gift certificate for a massage, more scrapbook paper, and Kindle books from Amazon. Oh yes. And a gift card for a new flat screen tv!!! Thanks mom & dad!

After unwrapping our gifts, breakfast, and a quick visit with some extended family, we were on the road back to MW to spend Christmas with Chris’ family…

Christmas Day…

Chris and I woke up…to a throwing up dog. 😦 Yuck. Once that little situation was taken care of we brought our gifts to one another with us & went back to bed to open them, snuggle, and play with our puppy. It was actually quite wonderful…maybe I’ll have to make that a tradition too.

Christmas with the Thompson family is pretty sweet…as in there are lots, and lot of sweet treats to eat. 😉 We set out a buffet of cookies, chex mix, candy, and more food than any of us could need or want. Gotta love that! We giggled at A-girl & Huxley playing together, had fun playing games together (including, but not limited to the Mission Impossible unwrapping game!), and watched “A Muppet Christmas Carol,” as Thompson family tradition requires. 🙂

Poor little Huxley was so worn out from all the family & travel & rough-housing with A and her Dad that he slept almost all day on Christmas. At one point he just went and sat by the bed looking up at it and whimpering. I put him up there to rest a while and he was out like a light!

Post-Christmas Shopping…

Gift cards burn a hole in our pockets, so like most everyone else in America we set out the day after Christmas to spend our gift cards & try to nab the best Chrsitmas deals. Chris fixed a snafu with one of the gifts I had given him, we picked out a beautiful new tv, Chris spent his gift cards, then we used our winning certificate from the Mission Impossible game to treat ourselves to lunch at Chili’s with Chris’ mom and a friend.

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So here it is, the day after the day after Christmas. And I am being a major vegetable. It’s my Christmas gift to myself. 😉

KEEP CALM & KEEP THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS ALIVE ALL YEAR LONG!

P.S. Oh yes, one more thing…the Christmas video I mentioned earlier. 🙂 A couple from our home-group introduced us to it and were sweet enough to get us a copy, which I then showed to my family, Chris’ mom, and Chris’ cousin. That’s four viewings…and I’m still wrapping my head around it! It’s called “The Star of Bethlehem” <http://www.bethlehemstar.net/> and it is a biblical/scientific look at what was happening in the sky in the days surrounding Christs’ conception, birth, and cruxifiction. I know it’s a little late to watch it for Christmas, but it would be a great movie to watch at Easter!