Christmas Party Treats {Christmas Morning}

Once the guests start arriving, I am always too busy interacting to take pictures of stuff like treats...

In fact, at my own events, I forget about things I spent all day preparing (like special homemade candy or decor). I love photographing other people's events because I don't know everyone and I can focus on the pretty stuff and the relationships I notice.

I should've taken a picture of the pretty donut tower....and the drink station....and the biscuits and gravy....I should've taken a picture of the treat table.....but I didn't.

Here are a couple of things DID I take pictures of at the Christmas Morning party.

I found this 'bacon and egg' candy on Pinterest. All you need is white chocolate (either chips or candy melts), some yellow m&ms, and pretzel sticks. I melted the white chocolate on some mini toasts from Wal-Mart (found near the fancy cheeses).

I started planning this party a while ago...you can see most of my pins here.

My favorite local donut shop recently rebuilt and opened (after it was completely destroyed by the tornado). I knew we had to have some special treats from there. These donut holes were devoured by the end of the party...but I still have some other donuts to finish off (oh darn!).

Peanut butter-filled bugles....another Pinter-esting recipe!

And these little donut snowmen...SO CUTE!!

Thanks for reading!!
Hope you all are having fun with your favorite Christmas traditions.

Christmas Party Special Gifts and Stockings

My favorite part of Christmas morning has got to be opening my stocking. So providing a stocking for all of the friends and family at the party was essential to making it special. I bought a bunch of felt, cut out 30+ stockings and started embellishing them.

Each stocking is different!!

A few nights before the party, I had a dream that the stockings were filled with wrapped presents....so I knew I would need to make some boxes and buy some stuff to make them more full.

The stockings contained packages of hot chocolate, a full-sized candy bar, a mint tin, a fancy lollipop, a baggy with some Christmas erasers, a Ghiardelli chocolate square, a small toy like a spinning-top or a yo-yo, 3 small slim jims, and other toys from Oriental trading like gliders, paddle balls, back scratchers, Chinese finger traps, woopie-cushins...and an envelop containing a coupon for a night of fun with someone at the party....in each special envelop, people were 'linked' with someone in the room for some fun activity they could do together, like have a dance party, or go thrifting or have a game night. It was a cool way to pair up people (at random) who might not have known each other before the party.

I bought some pill boxes and small paper boxes and I also made 30+ origami boxes from craft paper and decorated them.

Here are a few of my favorite boxes. I used doilies, yarn, fabric yo-yos, magazine papers, old paint-by number copies, ledger paper, book pages, and anything else that might look pretty like tape or pearls.

The felt stockings were fun to make. I wish I would've made fewer and embellished them more. My favorite ones had stripes....IKEA fabric, felt and ribbon bunting, one has a doily sewn to the front and I even used some old ties to spruce up a couple of them.

It was such a fun gift...and an amazing party favor for each of the guests to take home....I have several extras....I guess I will have to find someone to give them to...I'm thinking I will make a little 'care stocking' for the janitors at my school. ;-)

Christmas Party Photo Booth

Last weekend, it was time for the annual Christmas party....The theme this year was 'Pajama Party'. It was so fun...and comfortable.....and I really loved seeing all of my friends relax and enjoy Christmas. It is my favorite thing of the year.

I love planning it and I look forward to it all year long...and now I am sad that it is over.




I will be posting a couple of more 'christmas party' posts...but I really wanted to share the photo booth with you.

The backdrop is an IKEA fabric with white icicle lights on top. I included little finger puppets and all sorts of props for people to use including wigs, hand-painted signs, santa hats, antlers, and other Christmas gear.

 I don't have any pictures suitable to share using the finger puppets.....as you can imagine what finger most people put their puppets on.....*sigh*

 While the wigs weren't worn in many of the photos, they look kind of cool on my dresser.

 I ended up setting up one umbrella light on a table because the lighting in the bedroom was too yellow...and it was too dark with the lights turned off. Here are a couple of my hand painted signs.

 My sister flew in from Hawaii just in time for the party! YIPPEEEE!!!!! She looks so cute draped in Christmas lights!!

 

I took a lot of photos at the party....these are just a few of my favorites!