Winter Wonderland Party!

Every year, we invite all our neighborhood friends to a cookie decorating party, and this year we kicked off the season together with a Winter Wonderland theme! We had about 40 people over to decorate cookies, enjoy a dinner together with awesome appetizers, play minute-to-win-it games & do a secret Santa gift exchange with the kids. Unfortunately, Brian was still in Vegas at a conference, so he missed the festivities, but we found out when he got home that he had Covid, so it was probably better that he wasn't around!

Luckily, we have wonderful neighbors that I suckered into helping to decorate the basement the weekend before... It was a good thing too, because it still took me all week to get it ready! Good thing the kids watched "Elf" with me and made all the paper chains!

I had my little guy from across the street come over the week before the party and we spent the afternoon making 200 snowflake, snowman & snowy tree cookies to decorate (and a few bats and Mickey Mouse cookies he found cutters for too).

 

Here was the crew of kids this year... They are getting bigger by the day!

There were some VERY festive cookies this year!

Some kids went all out with matching wintery outfits!

We had some snowy coloring for the younger ones...

Explaining our first minute-to-win-it winter-themed game!

They did a great job transferring their snowballs with just a straw...

There were some very impressive igloos built out of just mini marshmallows and toothpicks!

And I think Tay had the best stacked snowmen!

Making a paper chain with no tape is not an easy task... I thought they would all rip their paper to fit them together, but the longest chain ended up being one they licked! 

This game is always my favorite to watch... they have to get Santa's snowflake cookie from their forehead to their mouth without touching it... the faces they make are awesome!

Snowball toss from one partner back to back to another was tough for most of them, but some nailed it!

The snowball roll getting their ball down the table and into the goal with just a straw was harder than it looks!

And the snowman peep race was hard at first until the girls figured out the secret of eating the bottom first and then sticking it to their stick!

There was a crazy amount of activity going on!

The last game was a snowman wrap-up where one team member was the snowman and got wrapped by their partner in toilet paper. Then they each found a "hat" and "scarf" from my dress up bin to win!

After the kids finished games, it was the grown-ups turn! We had an ugly cookie decorating party this time, because apparently all of our inspiration last year when we outdid ourselves with our grinch cookies! (2022 Grinchmas Party)

I was surprised so many grown-ups wanted to try the minute-to-win-it games, but you know I'm always up for more games!

What a fun night celebrating the beginning of this season with good friends and neighbors. I am truly blessed to be on this journey of life with them!