Christmas Cookie Party

This time of year is really hard living so far away from my family.  We get to spend every other Christmas in Ohio with them, and this is the "off" year, so I am really missing them.  I love buying the perfect gifts for my nieces and nephew and seeing their faces when they open them Christmas morning.  This is one of the years I just have to live with hearing about it on the phone.  I am grateful that we still get to spend the holidays with Dom's family though, so we're not all alone.

So when my friend Steph decided to have a big Christmas party for our play group friends, I was really excited.  We are a very close knit group, so its just like celebrating with cousins!

When we first arrived, the girls got to pick out an apron to wear and take home.  Steph did a fantastic job making all these adorable Christmas aprons.  Audrey picked stripes with Santa's on the pocket and Eliza picked gingerbread men with candy canes on the pocket.

Then the kids got busy cutting out cookies with a big assortment of cookie cutters.

While the cookies baked and cooled, we made reindeer food to spread on the lawn for Santa's reindeer Christmas Eve.  The kids helped pour in the magic sprinkles and stir it all together with the oatmeal.  They decorated paper bags to look like reindeer, and everyone scooped some food into their bags to take home.

Then it was time to decorate our cookies.  Audrey chose a stocking, a bell, and a snowflake.  She needed help with the icing, but did all the sprinkles by herself.

Eliza did a candy cane, a star, a snowman, a small gingerbread man, and a large gingerbread ninja.  She did a great job with only a little help.

All the kiddos wearing their aprons (except Brady who didn't want his picture taken).

They had fun playing inside and outside on this beautiful San Diego day.  We had lunch together too - pizza and lots of healthy snacks to go with our cookies.

Then it was time for our Christmas book exchange.  After we got them all in a circle, we had to make sure the kids knew their left and right...

Then Steph read Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  It was a special version with the words Right and Left added in quite often.  Each time the words were read, the kids had to pass their book in that direction.  They all ended up with a different book than the one they brought, and it was so fun!

It was a great morning and I am so thankful for this great group of friends!