Tis the Season...

It seems that this time of year more so than any other brings people together socially. I’m someone that could stand to plan a gathering and do something festive all year around. I love to have friends over and have that “party” atmosphere. Sometimes it can be as simple as having another family come over for pizza night. We have the kids make their own pizza then send them outside to run themselves silly while the grown ups talk.

Other times it’s a bigger gathering with more of a theme. I have a pumpkin carving party every October, where the neighbors come over and we eat tons of food and carve our pumpkins then line them up on the step out side to take an after dark pumpkin picture.



You could invite a bunch of people over and ask that everyone brings an appetizer. That always seems to be a hit. I love appetizers, why not make a meal out of them.

Or host a cookie exchange. Get 10-12 bakers organized and each participant makes 10 -12 dozen of one type of cookie. Then you come together and swap so you go home with a tray filled with all sorts of different treats and you didn’t have to spend days and days in the kitchen. This concept works well with soup too. It’s so nice to have a freezer filled with containers of soup all winter.

This past weekend I went to a Gingerbread decorating party (without kids). It was so relaxing to sit back with some wine and decorate our houses while catching up with our gal pals.

Here’s my creation….

To keep the festive feeling going, I had a Christmas party the next day with just my family.
I pulled all the tree trimming supplies out while hubby mad a few bloody marys.

The kids got to decorate their own gingerbread house and since I had already done mine, I was less “type A” about how they did their decorating. Worked out great for all of us.

Hubby strung the lights while the kids and I worked on the gingerbread house and then we all moved in the living room to hang the ornaments.

I guess I was focused on the tree and sadly my house did not survive for very long.

What fun ideas do you have for sharing time with the people around you??