Saturday night, Peter and I hosted an Annual Christmas White Elephant Party at our house. This tradition began about 5 years ago, but we have always done it out, at a restaurant. After loving our experience for Peter’s birthday with No Thyme to Cook, we had them again for this get together.
This group of friends are pretty special to Peter and I. When I first moved back, I had lots of girlfriends from growing up here, but I joined the MOMS group so I could have daytime activities for Matti Jane and I. These are the same gals and their husbands. The bond between adults and babies (now 7 and 8 year olds (insert crying emoji)) has remained so strong and I TREASURE it!!
We ran with a White Christmas theme. Knowing we were hosting this party and Colleen’s wedding last weekend, it put us in full gear to decorate for Christmas, which I am so grateful for as we’ve been able to enjoy it for 2 full weeks already!! I just added a couple touches to the table and the bar for the evening.
I am in super love with this centerpiece. The wooden box is from a workshop I attended at Scarborough Farms last Thanksgiving (2016). And, I saw a gorgeous red poinsettia flower arrangement is the current Southern Living magazine…so that was my inspiration 🙂 Everything is real including the greens from our yard and the pomegranates.
I cut pieces from our Christmas tree and used them on the napkins for a festive feel.
Dinner was prepared by No Thyme to Cook and the menu included –
- Mixed Greens with Pickled Beets, Manchego & Toasted Walnuts with an Apple Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Peppercorn Crusted Steaks with Horseradish Cream Sauce
- Individual Potato Gratins & Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Almonds & Brown Butter
- Dessert – Molten Chocolate Cakes
Yes, dinner was delicious AS USUAL, but it was truly about the company…our friends are AWESOME!!
Anyone spot Eddie our Elf?!?!
A huge thank you to Amanda and Lucas for the most amazing and delectable charcuterie plates EVER!!
Now on to the White Elephant Gift Exchange. So, this is both terribly fun and can be completely inappropriate. We love it because it’s both. The best part, the guys participate as well and as you can imagine, their gifts usually sway towards booze or inappropriate 😉 But, it truly makes it that much more fun with them joining in!!
Lucky me got the Mrs. Claus costume 😉 I think I was putting it on display here for the next person to steal from me…hahaha. But, that is what makes it FUN.
Maybe my favorite part of the night was giving out favors.
I gave the girls monogrammed pearl earrings and the guys received Whistle Pig minis. It was SO FUN…and yes, I ordered myself a pair of earrings too 😉
It was such a GREAT night, all because of GREAT friends!! The only pitfall was knowing that not “everyone” was there. Our close friends Mike and Nicole got stuck in Atlanta because of the darn snow. They were SO missed!!!
And, thank you to Sara for capturing all of these great pictures!! I did a terrible job of taking pictures that evening :-/
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