Holiday Treats Exchange

Well, I'm pleasantly full from lots of treats as I sit here tonight and blog. This afternoon, I hosted a sweets exchange party for my Memphis friends. It was so much fun!!!

In this post, I showed you what I was getting my inspiration from. So, here are the pictures of the real party. It was a blast. Good desserts and good conversation. Oh, and recipes to share!

(I do promise to post about all of the desserts I made, and some of the ones I ate :)

It's like Mrs. Claus' candy shop!


So, for the decorations: I started with a plain white table cloth and pinned some candy cane ribbon across the front. I actually made the bows myself (a first attempt at large bows), and they turned out pretty good!



For the centerpiece, I used 2 red trees that I already had (normally in my entry way). I used the bucket from my kitchen, and stuck in a few candy canes that were on my tree. My tree didn't miss them for the afternoon.

I also added my fancy, heavy, could-be-considered-a-weapon, red rolling pin.


And a peppermint party couldn't be complete without real peppermints and candy canes! I filled a white coffee mug with 3 boxes of canes, and Keith was kind enough to unwrap a whole bag of peppermints for me to fill the jars. The jars were $2.99 at Walmart (they had lots of things I used for my party). They had such good deals!




This was my entry-way drink server area.

I took this picture before we set out my Mom's hot drink server on the left. We had hot chocolate in it :)



I served ice-cold milk and all the fixin's for hot chocolate.

The paper cups and napkins are from Walmart, too. I already had red and white mugs, so I arranged them in a pattern for fun.



These were the treat boxes for everyone to use to pack-up a sample of everything in.

Once again, Walmart. They sold 'em packs of 3 for just a few dollars.


Here are the pictures of some of the sweets. I didn't get one of each dish, but most of them:


All of the desserts I made had some form of peppermint. These are cocoa tassies with peppermint frosting. Recipe to come later. I promise.



These are mint truffles with crumbled peppermint. I took step-by-step photos of this process for ya :)



My Mom's peanut butter fudge. OMG. The Best Ever!



I made these peppermint bonbon cookies and was almost convinced they were going to be terrible.

Result = not terrible.

That striped platter was also from Walmart for only $7. What a deal!


There's a funny story on how I arrived at making these cupcakes. Will share later.
These are simple white cake mix cupcakes with a delicious peppermint frosting (that was the homemade part).


View of the (loaded) table.


It was overflowing with everyone's baked goodness.


Lauren's delicious almond bark cookies. One of my favorite things I ate!


Lynsi's graham cracker toffee crunch. Yummm-o!


Oh my. Julie out-did herself. These are peppermint brownie pops. And they're precious!


Kayla made a traditional peanut butter press cookie. They were so pretty and tasty! It has inspired me to at least try to make cookies using a press. My grandma gave me one as a wedding gift and I've always been scared to try. Kayla has motivated me now after tasting these!


Kristen couldn't make it but she sent her crinkle cookies. Mmmmm.



LOOOOOK at those precious Santas! Lindsey Lissau and her sweet daughter Abby brought all of these.



The coffee table was loaded down, too. Food was everywhere.



And everybody was enjoying the treats, and each other.


It was a good turn-out. About 17 lovely ladies :)


Sweet Abby enjoyed her cupcake :)


Adonia (married to a dental student) and Kathryn and Megan are in Keith's class. All such sweet, sweet girls.


My Mom and Mother-in-Law. Two very fashionable Moms!



Julie and Kayla



Lynsi and Lauren



Wives Club!


I hopped around and got pics with everyone :)
Camera hog!


Lindsey and Abby. So precious! Lindsey's husband Casey works with me at cs2. She also is an amazing photographer and took our pictures this summer.


cs2 bunch!
Claire, me, Lisa, Lauren, Kate and Lindsey with Abby



More wives club


The boys returned when the party ended. I like this little family picture :)

Keith and his adorable mom, Penny. Her houndstooth dress was super cute.

All in all, it was a wonderful party. There were lots of treats to go around, plenty for everyone to take home and plenty for me to take to work tomorrow. There's just more sweets than I can bear to eat! Each thing I tasted was yummy though!

Thanks to all the ladies who came with food made from the heart. I enjoyed having each of you in my home and I am so glad to have all of your recipes now. Merry Christmas!!