Cookie Exchange

So, on Friday Daniel had a Christmas Party/ Gift Exchange with our play group... for some reason, I felt that this party started at noon! I went into work early so that I could be home in time to bring him... we had talked about it for a long time... picked out our gifts for our friend... I am driving home to get Daniel and I get a text from my friend asking me if I am coming??? I got this weird, sick feeling like, "she would only be texting me this if I was really late!!! Did I get the time wrong?" So, I called her and she was like it started at 10AM! OH MY GOSH! I felt like the WORSE MOTHER ever... my son had been looking forward to this party FOREVER and it was all the way in Mesa but my INCREDIBLE, AMAZING friends waited for us and they even hung out until that afternoon so we got some fun times in with this incredible group of friends (for mommy and Daniel!). HOWEVER, in the craziness... I totally forgot my camera!!! NO PICTURES after all of that! Adrianna made an amazing lunch, had cookie decorating for the kids and is just one of those very relaxed mom's that doesn't mind a bunch of pre-school kids demolishing her house! LOL! And let me tell you about Daniel's gift, my very talented friend Sue MADE Daniel a firetruck from wood... it was AMAZING! Something he can keep forever! I was so AMAZED!

The next day, my friend Lisa who throws "parties straight out of the pages of a magazine!" parties (you know one of those moms that you are scared to death to invite to your parties! LOL! Just kidding because she is also one of the most helpful and most resourceful friends you can have and will HELP you if you are domestically challenged in some areas like me!) threw a very intimate cookie exchange party and it was so festive and fun.

My contribution: I made 12 dozen Gumdrop cookies the night before!

Sweet kiddos playing...

Cookie Decorating...

The station she had set up with boxes and bags to bring home your goodies...

My loot!

She even did favors for the kids with Gingerbread cookie cutters AND....

REINDEER FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought this was the BEST IDEA EVER!!!!!

I was sooooooooooo excited to save this to do with Daniel on Christmas EVE night! (Pics to follow in another post!)

Thank you, Lisa, for such a fun party!

The next day I had a party at my house for around 20 people... basically every group in the church that has volunteers like kids, 1st impressions, music, etc has their own Christmas party with all the volunteers in that group and we hosted the 1st Impressions Christmas Party! We played "Dirty Santa" and there were GREAT GIFTS! I got an inflatable snowman for our front yard and Brendon got a Starbucks set with a gift card! No pics=(