Christmas Party

Last night we had the college kids over for a Christmas party. Most of them had just finished up their finals, so they were ready to relax, eat some food and play some games. They are always such a nice group of people to have over. After everyone filled up their plates, they teamed up to play some Wii Sports. The evening ended with a few races of Mario Kart, then they were off to more parties (those party animals, I was ready for bed) and more studying (for one lucky girl, Erica, with a 7am chemistry final on Friday morning).

The Hemenway family gave us this beautiful poinsettia plant, via Erica. I've never received a poinsettia plant, I feel like such an adult.

So, our holiday fare consisted of a smorgasbord of delicious items. The great thing about baking, versus a full meal, is that you can make most of it ahead of time. Come, take a walk with me around our scrumptious table!

Here are some happy sugar cookie gingerbread men that Cadence and Finn helped me cut out. A few have smeared eyes from the clingwrap that was covering them. We also had Peanut Butter Blossom cookies, which are peanut butter cookies with a hershey kiss in the middle. Finn just wanted to eat the Hershey kiss. I had to stop him from taking cookies because he would just take one bite and then go and get another one.

Our beverages consisted of a holiday cranberry punch (the cranberries were just for decoration, not very tasty raw...as Brad discovered) and water. Isn't the water pretty with the lemons, limes and cranberries? I love how the cranberries float and add so much color!

This cute Christmas sleigh was holding all our papergoods for the evening. I actually received these festive cups and napkins as a white elephant gift from my mom's group just this week! How handy!

Next, we had an array of dips with crackers, chips and veggies. I love dip! It reminds me of the times we used to go to my aunt and uncle's for holidays and I would eat a ton of chips and ranch dip, because we didn't have that around our house very often. My favorite out of these dips, though, was the queso. Yum! I found these cool serving trays in a box of dishes I had from my Grandma Esther. I was so excited to have the room to put them out and a reason to use them! Before filling the dip bowls, Finn enjoyed putting his toys in them and spinning them around like a Merry-go-Round.

Here is the cherry Cheesecake I made, I didn't try it, but it looked good. I also made a key lime pie, which I didn't try either. Brad is baffeled by my ability to make food and not eat it. I was planning to have some cheesecake the next day, but then we gave the leftovers to the college kids because they were having a "Pipes and Poetry" get-together later that evening. Sounds very "Dead Poet's Society"-ish, doesn't it? Other items you can see in the backgrounds of pictures are pumpkin brownies, rice krispie treats and white chocolate popcorn with dried cranberries. I was able to get the college kids to take most of the leftovers, so that was good for my waistline. We will probably bring the rest of the desserts to our church talent show on Sunday night.