It's My Party...

Today was our SAMmy's Christmas party. Mike didn't want me to go, because I have pneumonia. Last night at dinner, he kept asking the kids in front of me (in a teasing way), "Would Mom let you go to a party if you had pneumonia?" and they'd say, "No!" Five minutes later he'd ask "Would Mom let you go to school if you had pneumonia?" and this went on and on throughout dinner. Sheesh! I had to go! I was in charge of the group! And, it was only for an hour and a half! About a third of the group didn't make it because of illness and/or their kids' school Christmas programs, so we had a small group - about 16 of us, but we had SO MUCH FUN! And, I didn't overextend myself at all! In fact, they ended up sending me home right after the festivities, and they took care of cleaning up all by themselves. They're a great group of girls. I'm really lucky to have them for friends!

Anyhow, Heather was in charge of centerpieces that we gave away for door prizes. She picked up roses and baby's breath and we had bouquets in the center of the tables. Very cute!

Heather, Jocelyn and I made those ornaments I told you all about that Maura had featured on her blog as necklaces. (We just tweaked her pattern a bit to make them ornaments.) We put them at everyone's places as place favors. There was a selection of a few different kinds. We put different types of paper on the backs of them. We also used sterling silver bails to hold the ribbon, so that if anyone ever wanted to replace the ribbon with a silver chain, they could potentially use theirs as a pendant.

Take a look at our handiwork! This one has a rose petal themed pendant:

And we made this one pine needle themed:

And this one is little red cherries. Cute, huh?:

The big activity that everyone looks forward to every year at the SAMmy's Christmas party is the White Elephant Gift Exchange. It's a hoot! You just never know what's going to show up in that pile of gifts...

The rules for the exchange are simple. Everyone must bring one to three wrapped gifts - they cannot be new - they must be either absolutely wonderful things from your house that somebody else would love that you no longer use (or you never used), or something extremely weird or super ugly that you are embarrassed to even own that everyone will laugh about when somebody opens it. All gifts are wrapped, so nobody knows what they're getting. Everyone draws a number to see who gets to pick a gift first, second, third, etc. The first person opens their gift. The second person can either open their gift or choose to steal the first person's gift and give the first person an unwrapped gift in it's place. The third person can choose to steal either person's gift and give them an unwrapped gift in it's place and so on.

I came home with an insulated coffee mug boxed set, and two cut glass cookie platters. I almost got stuck with a brand new Dale Earnhart DVD set in a tin, until I convinced a Somalian girl that it would be a good thing to steal it from me to learn about racing. I don't feel convicted at all. Everyone needs to learn about racing if they're from another country, right? I certainly don't. And, she would have ended up with coffee mugs. She doesn't even like coffee.

The gifts people were stealing the most: a Santa's train set, conversation cards and - believe it or not - a ping pong ball gun. Yep.

The gifts people were laughing about (because they were the worst): a 2008 planner, a box of decorative (real) mini pumpkins & gourds (how were those things NOT rotten yet?), and a fuschia suede and lambs wool purse (the mom of Ms. Hudson got that one...we kidded her about wearing it to the next Ms. Hudson appearance...).

It was really a good time! We laughed, and dined and I was so proud as we collected a slew of stuff for a mom and her 2 year old who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. She doesn't know us, but her sister attends our group. I hope she really feels loved this Christmas season! 

There was a gal at our party who has her own ministry with her husband. They set out a table of kid's books and things, and I finished up with buying some stocking stuffers. That was great! Now, I think it's time I take a nap. *yawn!* Nighty night!