You’re Invited: Wrapping Party/ Cookie Exchange

Sorry that I’ve been MIA, but I had a small party that was full of fun but took some work to pull off.  If you live on the East Coast, you may have gotten just a little bit of snow this weekend.  Here in Philly, it dumped 23 inches on us.  It snowed all day Saturday, so I thought for sure my wrapping party/cookie exchange on Sunday would have to be canceled.  Most of my friends live in the city and they got the worst of it (combined with living on side streets that take days to plow)!

Imagine my happiness when over half of the guests still made it out here!  Some had to come by train, some took over an hour to dig their car out, and one of my friends had her car overheat on the way home… needless to say, due to the crazy backup at AAA and the fact she lived so far away I had an unexpected overnight guest.  But they made it here, and yes, as of tonight all have made it back home too.  I wanted to share a little snapshot of the day  in mostly words and not photos {I was busy gabbing and didn’t take any photos during the party, so you’ll have to take my word for it…}

Wrapping Party:
To organize supplies, I placed them in bins by category (yes, I used Clementine boxes).  Guests that were going to wrap brought some paper to share.  My friends are really environmental {and pretty clever} so it was great to see the creative ways they covered their gifts by reusing supplies.  Next year, I’ll get photos, I promise!

Cookie Exchange:  I was really casual about this.  Apparently there are all kinds of rules about cookie exchanges, but I basically said: bring what you can, we’ll go from there!  I made extra because I knew with the storm some people wouldn’t be able to bring cookies.   We ended up with a great variety and plenty to share with all the guests.  I haven’t stopped eating cookies all day.  Just way too tempting for a pregnant girl!

Vegan Pepperoni Pesto Rollups– one of my friends is vegan, and although she got mad that I made these special for her they ended up being DELICIOUS and I would seriously make them again and again!  Here’s how I tweaked it: I skipped the nutritional yeast in the pesto and didn’t add olives.  Also, it says to make the day before.  I made it the same day, but it does need some time to cool off because the “cheese” is melty.  In the future, I’d still make these the same day but allow about 20 minutes of cooling time before serving.  They were GONE in minutes.  You couldn’t tell that they were vegan!

Bongo Bongo dip, served in a bread bowl with some extra bread on the side (it’s a hot spinach dip that is sooooooo good!)

Hummus with veggies and pita

Philly Pretzels (brought by a friend– I LOVE me some Philly soft pretzels!  These came from a shop, but the next snow day I’m going to attempt to make them myself with my bread machine).

I was going to serve Brie in Puff Pastry, but with the small number of guests it would have been going overboard (especially once you added in all the cookies).  I’ll serve it on Christmas instead!

Cinnamon Honey Butter— recipe from Fly Through Our Window (are you reading that blog?  If not, go NOW!  It’s the best!)– packaged in baby food jars.   The butter is yummy, perfect for breakfast over the holidays.  I wrapped the tops in fabric and used a rubber band to hold the fabric in place.  Then I tied a ribbon over the elastic band, put a label on the front, and voila: festive favors!

In the end, it was a low-key, chat with old friends, laugh a lot get-together.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way… except wish maybe that all the guests could have made it and weren’t stuck under 2 feet of snow!  My friend brought her 10 month old daughter, and Noodle went NUTS hugging her.  Poor little thing couldn’t even run away.  Those two will grow up close friends, I just know it… IF the sweet thing can forgive Noodle for the excessive hugs.