My 2012 Christmas Cookie Exchange Party!

Having a 4 yr old..2 yr old.. and almost 5 week old has

delayed this post a week or so. :) But here it is!

I really look forward to this party with friends every year.

I LOVE to bake... It's fun seeing the variety of cookies everyone brings...

and I love any excuse to get the girls together and have a party!

Here's a round up of photos from the fun night!

With a 4 week old at the time, the party details were cut to a minimum.

And with Christmas around the corner...extra budgeting is happening.

But I was happy how it all came together and

that we could have a fun girls' night!

First things first...the invite! I e-mailed it out to some of my girls.

I love having a creative project to work on....

but I also need some brain power to do DIY Projects and

my kids have currently zapped all brain power from me.

So I tried to keep it simple this year.

I feel like a walking zombie plenty of these newborn days..

A lot of things happened the couple days before with a baby strapped to me,

during naps, or while nursing (creating printables).

I had little helpers while making my sweets. :)

Here's how the set up looked like before everyone arrived and

placed some of their cookies on the taste testing table!

This year I used all my own plates from pottery barn..(wedding dishes)

and my reindeer (target couple years ago). The mini trees are from Big Lots ($6) and I put some gold ornaments on them from the dollar store. (our tree is all silver or I would have used those!)

I made a banner in Photoshop and then strung it up with some tinsel from the Dollar Store.

I got a sheet of gold sparkly card stock from JoAnns on clearance..and used my circle punch to cut out circles to place around the table for a little sparkle. :)

I also created some tented cards with numbers on them for the cookie voting.

I also had favors for the ladies.

I grabbed up a variety of mugs from our local thrift store...

50 cents each.. ran them through the dishwasher..

then used an OIL BASED Sharpie to decorate them!

Baked in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Sophie LOVED them..

so she got her own too. it says sophia on it. :)

(she is reallyyyy into hot chocolate with marshmallows right now. hehe.)

I filled up some of the extra clear bags with a marshmallow mix and marshmallows...

then tied with the gold curling ribbon from the dollar store.

The prizes this year were edible. (above are shots of work in progress)

Edible amazingness.

Oreo Truffles.

All time favorite dessert right now..... dangerous little things.

I made up some cute tags to go with them.. and packaged them

up in clear bags and dollar store curling ribbon. 

The cookie competition was fierce this year... ;)

Lots of yummy varieties to sample...

We loaded up our little plates with a taste of each... and got to voting!

 It's a tough job but someone had to do it!

 

Like previous years, I made up Ballot Cards for the voting!

I think it adds a fun activity to the night.

After the cookie sampling and voting was done...

it was time to load up the cookie trays!

I got silver dollar store trays..I thought they would be a fun alternative

to the christmas trays they had..

because the girls can use them for other occasions..

(like new years!)

I made Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies. A family favorite!

It was a fun group of girls!

I was so happy that we made this happen...

December is such a busy month.. 4 girls had to cancel last minute.

Here's some shots of the lovely ladies who came.
We all were happy to have girl talk and sample cookies... ;)
(ps. cute red straws below were from bed bath and beyond.)

Not only did the girls have the yummy oreo truffles...
but one of the girls that came sells Thirty One products, and
brought a handful of them for the winners to choose from! :)
A winner across the board was the Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies.

YUM! We all ended up with some pretty trays of cookies..
to freeze for Christmas... or to dive into right away.
we chose to dive in. ;)

If you want to check out my past cookie exchanges...

Here's from 2010 in our old rental...

and here's from 2011.

Thanks for stopping by..
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Christmas is almost here!!!!
Can't wait to share our Christmas Card(s) Cutenessssss.
Today the girls and I are going to decorate sugar cookies...
and on Christmas Eve we're decorating their gingerbread houses!
I have a feeling sienna will be eating most of the decorations. :)

My Cookie Exchange Party 2011

Decor

--I used a piece of fabric from ikea

(had my eye on this print for a while..excited to re-use it!)

I hung it up over my family room window with clothespins to the top of the blinds.

--I designed and printed out cute "Cast Your Vote!" Signs, cut and attached to leftover chop sticks(thanks grandmommy!) I then covered Dollar Store Floral Foam with leftover napkins from Ikea and stuck the signs into them!  Cut the sticks to be the height you want.

--The Sparkly Trees are from Home Goods. $6.99 each.

The biggest splurge of the party. but they are now part of our yearly Christmas decor!

--I also designed and printed out fun cast your cookie vote ballot cards..

--Along with numbered tented cards so they could choose their favorites!

--I hung up Dollar Store snowflakes with thread from my sewing machine...

--And did a fun DIY project the night before: Tassel Garland (I used tissue paper(Walmart) and Napkins(Ikea) then strung along leftover ribbon from another project.

We kept that garland up all Christmas as part of our decor above our big window!

I was very excited about my Apron!

Lets pretend like I, in all my domesticated glory, sewed this...

but in reality I got it with a coupon at Bed Bath & Beyond. :)

Here is how it looked when everyone arrived...



I created taste testing stands out of dollar store plates and cups! 
$1 for a 12 pack..$2 bucks for the whole table display??.. not bad!
And the best part..no washing dishes. just tossed them at the end of the night!
(DIY tutorial: I hot glued them together)



I had everyone place some cookies on a platter
(breaking some up so people didn't have to eat 12 cookies at one sitting..
although that would by no means be frowned upon at this party!! ;)


Soon the taste testing began and the
cut throat competition was in full swing!!
It was funny how quiet everyone got when trying to cast their cookie votes...
this is serious business!!  sweet prizes are involved!! ;)

The winners!
I don't have a photo of the prizes unwrapped..
but 3 of them were AWESOME cook books from JoAnns that I got for a steal..
I think they were like 3 bucks in the end?
And one was a candle from Walmart..grabbed up a favorite scent. christmas sale.
I wrapped the presents in leftover brown packaging paper and Walmart ribbon. 
Designed some fun Award Tags for each of them!

Food and Drinks.
I made up some of my favorite punch.. equal parts 7up and rasberry sherbert. YUM.
Had wine and water with lemon available too.
As far as food this was late in the evening so I just did snacky food.. After tast testing cookies you want something healthy or salty..
So I made up a fun arrangement of veggies. 
I cut them tall and skinny. placed in one vase I had and two $1 store ones.
and used SUPER CHEAP Kale as decorations around the veggie dip.
I also served fresh mozarella with heirloom tomatoes drizzled with olive oil..salt and pepper. a favorite of mine. And because we needed something cheesy warm and yummy..made a spinach dip recipe by Paula Dean..can't go wrong with her.

Time to grab up some cookies!
I put out cute platters from the dollar store..
the girls walked around the table picking out 6 of each kind!
Some were packaged some weren't.. all delicious!
I love cookie exchange parties..it's like trick or treating for adults.
After we stacked our platters high with cookies we saran wrapped them for the ride home. 

Favors
I put together a pile of kitchen accessories for the girls to choose from!
All from the Dollar Store...I was so excited about finding the pretty dish rags (love the colors).. the betty crocker measuring cups...and the spatulas!
All of these I feel like I could always use more of in my kitchen.
Each of them chose two of whatever they wanted!

Group shots!

We all sat around at the end and I just thanked all of them for coming..and also thanked these girls for all of their prayers and support in the recent months since losing my best friend from domestic violence. I wanted them to know that the prayers have been felt..but also how experiencing the loss of such a great friend...made me appreciate and value the nights like this where we as women and mothers are able to be together and support and uplift each other! Some of these friendships are longer than others..some just starting to grow..but I am grateful for all of them. I love throwing parties and get togethers...1 because I enjoy the planning..but 2. because I LOVE the fellowship.

Ended the night with a sweet sleepy sophie being brought home from a friend's house..
and sneaking a cookie with her before bed. :)

SO IMPRESSED with the girls' packaging jobs.. aren't they cute?
some even had the recipes on the back!

Keeping it real......In order to have space in our tiny little (perfect for us) rental, we had to move some furniture around. I was told to ALWAYS feel free to move your space around to make it work for your event! Even if it means sofa in front of fireplace. One day when I make the big bucks I won't have to do this..and it just won't be as much fun and cozy. ;)

ps. make sure to have your sofa held up by a piece of wood during your party for an added touch of rustic.

Here's the Printable Package I designed and used for my party!
I also have a classic and then black chevron set in my Etsy shop as well!

Thanks for checking out my Cookie Exchange Party

from 2011! Hope you throw one next year if you never have.. you will love it!