4th Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange

My good friend Natalie has put on a Cookie Party for the last 3 years.  Unfortunately, she moved to LA, so I asked her if she would mind if I carried on the tradition.  She said of course, and so, the 4th Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange was born.  It was so fun to organize and put together. I decided that I wanted to go all out and make it really cute and memorable for the ladies. Believe it or not, even though there is SO much to do this time of year, it's sometimes a little hard, to feel the holiday spirit here.  I haven't really figured out why that is, except that it's just different from what I am used to.  Different place, and different people.  I think it's a little different for everyone.  But I like to think that I helped everyone who came get into the Christmas spirit a little more. ;)  I had more than a few people comment on how festive and fun it was, so I think I can call that a success!

Either way, it truly was so fun to put on. Sure, it was a little stressful.  Especially when I went to the room that I had reserved to finish setting up around 6:45pm, only to find people in there saying they had it reserved, and their boss had it reserved after that. Excuse me?!? Yeah, I cried. Thankfully, we got it all straightened out, without me having to move everything that I had already spent an hour bringing over and setting up, and a lovely time was had by all.

My sister in law, Lizza, knew that I was doing a peppermint theme, so she sent me the cutest red and white striped straws.  I was so excited to use them, until I discovered that they were too short to use. :(  Tragic.

The spread.  I made sour cream sugar cookies, spinach-artichoke dip, and then had fruits and veggies, pita chips, water and Izze sodas.  To be honest, the sodas were my biggest splurge.  Nate made fun of me a little for getting them, but I pretty much had my heart set on that "look".  I also wanted to have the banner above the table, but it didn't work with the window.  Oh well.  My inspiration came from here.

The "stands" are pasta boxes and canned food wrapped in wrapping paper.  Awesome huh?!  The center stand is my flour jar filled with soft peppermint candies.  I also used the wrapping paper to spruce up the water bottles.  That, and unwrapping all the peppermint candies were probably the most time consuming parts of the preparation.

Everyone brought such yummy and beautiful treats!  The chocolate marshmallow cookies on the left got second place in the best tasting contest.

Peppermint egg nogg cupcakes won for best tasting.  We also had a "prettiest dessert" contest, but I don't have any pics of the winner, which was the mini raspberry tarts.

Yes, this is my Christmas tree that I brought over.  (the party was held in a room in the building next door to mine)

The favors are homemade peppermint bark and english toffee, in clear pillow boxes, wrapped with baker's twine and ribbon.  I thought they turned out pretty cute.

And now, I'm already looking for another excuse to throw a party. ;)