Party!

I have a tendency to go overboard with things that I really like. It happens. I would like to take this opportunity to associate the responsibility for these tendencies with my mother. She is a fantastic woman that made me love to cook and love to cook a lot.
I like my friends here and since I like to cook so much, what better excuse could I have than to cook things for my friends? So I planned a party for December 22 and began the baking. I started baking things on Monday, did some more on Tuesday and Wednesday, finished on Thursday and did all the cooking of real food then too. Michael helped.

The Menu

Rice Krispie treats

Strawberry topped Brownies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies

Sugar Cookies

Fudge

Creme Drops

Muddy Buddies

Snickerdoodles

Pepperoni Monkey Bread

Bacon wrapped Lil' Smokies

Bacon Poppers

Veggie Tray

Summer Sausage,CZ, & Crackers

Activities

Nintendo 64

Eat

Decorate cookies

Eat

build Gingerbread houses

Eat

conversate

Having fun

Play Bohnanza & other games

I think everything went well. At least there was plenty of food. We invited about 14 adults and 7 children and 8 adults and 3 children attended. I have to say that was just the right turnout. Had anymore showed up, it would have been a little crowded, had any less, it might not have been as entertaining. We had loads of fun though. We ate a bunch, talked a lot, decorated home made gingerbread houses (which made for interesting creations) and played games. Since we had just received Bohnanza! (thanks Chris and Laura) we played that game. We also played Fluxx. The attendees were: Kristen & Nathaniel Sellers, Sydney & Patrick Kelly, Katy & Taylor Wilson with their wee ones Ava and Sterling, Ben & Natalie Millett with Emma. Oh and we were there with Ivan. Here's some pictures & proof of the fun!

Aw, we're a little plaid family!

Ben and Natalie's House

Patrick & Sydney's Cabin

Nathaniel & Kristen's Mansion

Another view of the Mansion

My Cottage

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of Katy & Taylor's gingerbread house, but it was awesome too. When I made the gingerbread, I didn't really leave any room for error on the cutting. I did print out some templates and followed those, so some styles of the houses were different. But I didn't even think about the fact that the bread would rise in the oven. Well it did, and I left it all out to make it stronger to build with. So then we had really hard gingerbread that wasn't even on any of the sides. Yay! Ben filed down a couple, if not all, of the edges of his house to make it even. Nathaniel used extra pieces to make everything fit and Patrick used cookies to hold the roof up. I let the roof rest on the ground, like an A-line house that would get lots of snow. It all worked out in the end and definitely made us step up our creativity.