Christmas Party!

A few days ago I had a few of the ladies from my church over for a little Christmas party. Believe it or not, at least to my recollection, this is the first Christmas party I've ever thrown! Well, "thrown" may not be the right term. There were no fancy hors d'oeuvres and certainly no alcohol (and, of course, no men). This was a pot-luck dinner, which, as always, worked out perfectly. Everything was delicious; amazingly, there were no duplicate dishes!

Before eating, by the way, we enjoyed some original holiday poetry that my neighbor Carolyn read to us. I had no idea that, as well as a fabulous quilter, she was such a talented and creative writer!

After a bit of small talk, we ate dinner, and then we exchanged cookies. This how it worked:

We all brought homemade cookies, and because there were eight of us, we had lots of different kinds of cookies to sample and take home. After carefully scrutinizing the cookies, selecting our samples, and completing our individual cookie plates, we moved back to the living room for a white elephant exchange. We each brought a wrapped white elephant gift; and for those readers who have no idea what this is, I'll explain:

A white elephant gift is an item that one finds in one's house that one might be willing to part with. Or something that hasn't been used in a while. Or at all. Sometimes, although all people have stuff they really need to get rid of, suddenly everything they own seems extremely valuable and impossible to part with, so instead they buy their white elephants at the Dollar Store, which is technically cheating, but often enough, they plan to get their own gift back anyway and they usually manage to do so.

In any case, we picked numbers; and beginning with #1, we selected and unwrapped the gifts. Ah-but there's a twist! The next person in line could either unwrap another gift OR take one of the gifts already revealed. Once a gift exchanges hands twice (that is, has a third owner) it cannot be taken again.

Fun - fun - fun!!!

Wow! Next year, I plan to throw yet another Christmas party! In fact, a bigger one! It's already in the planning stages. . .

PS. Here are some Christmas planning ideas (for this year or next) to help spark up your holidays, too!