Girlfriend Party

Happy Sunday Everyone.

Last Night was my Annual Charity Girlfriend Party.

I thought I would share some of the night with you.

I have been doing this party for about 16 years now.  We started out as a group of 4 and have grown to a group of 21!

Each year on the first Saturday of December we gather at my house to celebrate our friendship.  Everyone wears their Christmas jammies and cute slippers and we eat, drink and play some fun games.

The highlight of the party is the gift exchange.  Each girl brings a gift where some or all of the proceeds go to a charity.  I am always amazed at the gift selections and the meaning behind them picking that charity.  Very touching and we are all so blessed to share in this exchange.

Ok on to the party pics.  With being a hostess I did not always get the best pictures. I was distracted hosting the party.  I think you will enjoy what I did capture.

This Guy was keeping an eye on all of us at the Party to report back to Santa on our good or naughty behavior!!!

He also manned the kissing booth!

Each girl got to jingle with a necklace from the dollar store.  Love the dollar store.  Two necklaces for $1.

Our group has grown so much we take up all of Terry's Fireman Cave now with tables.

Food tables were set up for all the appetizers and walking taco's and sandwich bar.

I set up a Coffee/Hot Cocoa Bar.

Lot's of fun hot cocoa choices and coffee choices along with all the toppings.

I found these cute paper coffee cups at TJ Maxx.

Lots and lots of candy canes.

I love these coffee pod holders shaped like coffee pots.  Found them at Kirkland's for 50% off.

This was the desert bar almost set up.  I still did not have everything out when I took this picture and of course forgot to take a pic when I did!!!
The cupcake holder with crystals had little individual bundt cakes on it.

I loved using these cute little mugs I found at Home Goods to put marshmallows and toppings for the coffee/cocoa bar.

Yep there isElf on the Shelf still waiting for each girl to come for kisses!

Cute table runner.

Each girl gets a Swag Bag to take home from the party.

Inside each swag bag were two cute shopping totes, adult gummy's, Nail polish and a In a Pikle she emergency kit.  The kits contain hair bands, sewing kit, bobby pins etc. etc. for fashion emergencies.  They are sweet little bags you can put in your purse or in your desk drawer at work etc.

I found these cute little tags on Etsy to put on the nail polish bottles.

The tote bags from TJ Maxx and Home Goods were so adorable this year.  99 cents is such a great deal for these bags.  I use mine for everything.

Also in the swag bags were Mimosa gummies for adults.  Yummo!

This was my exchange gift and the Santa Claus pouch contained $5 in lottery tickets.  We each bring $5 in scratch off lottery tickets to exchange.  One of my daughter's friends won $500 on her scratch off.  Wooo Hooo!  Loved it!

We also play a game called Saran Wrap Ball.
This ball is wrapped in several layers of cling wrap with prized throughout.  One girl starts with trying to unravel the layers and the girl next to her has to roll two dice.  Once she rolls doubles she gets to grab the ball and continue to try and have prizes fall out.  It is so much fun.  We laugh so hard playing this game.

This was another prize that I had to give away.  I love this one because the spatula's were all designed by different celebrities and singers and athletes for William Sonoma.  The proceeds from the sale of these goes to No Kid Goes Hungry.  I added the cute girly towels with each spatula.

This was also a raffle prize.  It is a cute wine bottle holder.  Love that parka and fur hood.

Here I am with my group of bff's.  Love these girls so much.  I am beyond bless to call them friend.

My daughter Kimmie on your left front and her bff's.

Daughter Jen on your left with her bffs.  There jammie tops were so cute.  They said "Cocktails were served by the chimney with care".  So fun.

Jen's group of girls had fun slippers to wear at the party.  Jen's friend Camille made all of the slippers for them.

Many of you know this sweet bff of mine in the middle of this pic.  It is Diana from Nana Diana blog.  She lives over the border in Green Bay Wisconsin and drives down for my party.  Next to her are her two daughters Tara left and Mindy right.  Mindy is the sweetheart that adopted Peggy from us.  Peggy has the best home now with Mindy and her three kiddos and hubby.

This is my friend Pat wearing her gift from my other friend Sandy.  Pat got Sandy's gift in the exchange.  It is the cute hats from Love Your Melon.  This charity gives 50% of the profits of selling these cute hats to pediatric cancer.

Woooo that is the end.  The party was a great success.  We all had a fun time.  Here are my little birds I got from Target last year.  I love these little guys so much in my holiday decor.  I will have a post up soon on my house decor for Christmas.
Have a fabulous week.
This time of year goes so quickly so I am trying to enjoy all the fun of the season.
Hugs,
Kris

Small Business Gift Giving

Hello Sweet Blogging Friends.

We are on the path to cooking, baking, buying gifts, wrapping and decorating in the next few weeks.

This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday support shopping.  I hope a lot of you took advantage of buying those great gifts for family and friends from small business.

After all the small business owners help support our communities.

I wanted to share some great gift ideas and encourage you to go onto sites like Etsy and Ebay and your small shops in your town to purchase that perfect gift.

First gift idea I would love to share with you comes from my friend Cil Stephens.  I think most of you saw the beautiful Witch Angel she gifted me and then she also made a few Wrens dolls and gave me one for my fund raiser awhile back.

Cil has this sweet blonde angel that I adore for sale.  Love her lace and button blouse.

This sweet dark hair angel sitter with the cute floral top is for sale too.

Love this sweet one with the vintage lace also for sale.

Look at this sweet angel in the wreath.  The wreath and angel come together and are for sale.
If you would like any of these or something made by Cil you can contact her at her email
cilstephens.@gmail.com

Cil is also sewing some beautiful ornaments like this one you see above.  She also has many other projects like this so please contact her and let her know if you want to purchase any of her sweet homemade gifts to give to family and friends.

Now onto some other sweet gifts you can find on the internet.  This was on Oprah's Favorite List for 2018.  Kate Weilser is a small business owner and makes beautiful and yummy chocolates.   This is Carl her snowman made of cocoa and chocolate that you put the whole snowman into a pitcher of warm milk and you have a tasty hot cocoa for everyone in the family.  This would make a great family gift.
You can find this guy on Amazon.com

When I grew up in Michigan Sanders Chocolates were the popular gifts at the holidays.  These are my all time favorite treat.  Nothing better than sweet and salty together in one tasty treat.
You can find these and other sweet treats here.

This would make a beautiful hostess gift.

I showed you these cute mugs I got on Etsy and then just added my own hot cocoa and candy canes.

I tied off the cups in cello bags and added a gift card.  Makes for a great gift.

I just wanted to share a few Christmas gift ideas.  I really love the idea of buying gifts from small business owners and also making gifts of your own to give.

This final gift is one of the most special gifts you can give and I hope each of you do one or two of these to have in your car this season.

All you have to do is collect some things that the homeless need to survive on the streets.  The most asked for thing in shelters is SOCKS.  You can get great socks that are thick and warm at the dollar store.

In fact you can get almost all the things for a blessing bag at the dollar store.
Protein bars, first aid kit, Tylenol, chapstick, toothpaste, soap etc.  You can put these bags together for less than $10 to $15 dollars. 

Keep them in your car and when you see someone homeless on the street you can hand this out to them.  Also here in the midwest I keep a couple of old coats in my car to give out to the people on the streets too.

Hope this inspired you to think of getting your crafty on to make some gifts or help out small business peeps with purchasing gifts from them.
Have a great week
I have my annual charity girlfriend party this coming Saturday so I hope to have some pictures to share with you after the party.
Have a great week.
Hugs,
Kris