Winter Party - Chocolate Fondue

Last December I arranged a Winter Party for me and seven of my friends.

INVITATIONS: I made invitations in the shape of a snowflake on the computer using a font named "Frosty" (which can be downloaded safely at dafont.com/en). They were very pale blue on the inside and my friend helped my put silver glitter glue on the outline. Each stem of the snowflake was folded into the center and a silver seal attached the tip of the stem. It makes a circular shape. All of the girls really loved the invitations. Then, I organized a gift exchange. A few weeks before the party, I sent out cards that named the girl they needed to purchase a gift for. I set the price at about $20 because a really nice gift can be bought for that cost, but it's not too expensive. On the card, there was also information about what stores the girl likes to shop at and her size etc. for ideas and so no returns are necessary. This was again done on the computer with a faded picture of a snowman I had made with my friend a while ago in the background.

DECORATIONS: My friend helped me put up white Christmas lights over the fireplace and other areas. We had a silver menorah, dreidels, gelt as well as a miniature Christmas tree to not offend anyone. I wanted to avoid anything too religious because the party was about half Jewish, half Christian. Overall, it pleased both parties.

Also, the song "walking in a winter wonderland" was playing when the guests arrived. Sugar cookies with festive colored sugar on top were baked in addition to cinnamon buns. I also constructed a marshmallow snowman with three large marshmallows, sprinkles, chocolate gelt and graham crackers for the hat and cool whip to look like it is in the snow. It was the center of the plate for the sugar cookies.

We had our gift exchange playing spin the bottle to see who would give their gift. The person who was receiving the gift wore a Santa hat. Everyone received really personalized, great gifts.

We played theatre games such as the party game. (this is when there is a party host and guests that have very odd problems like social anxiety disorder or sneeze when anyone says "and." The host has to figure out what the guests have while staying in character) These were a blast because most of the girls were very outgoing, or became energetic around their friends.

Later, we had pizza for dinner and watched "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." For dessert we used a chocolate fondue. There were pretzels, Vanilla wafers, marshmallows and Oreos. Most dipped the marshmallow in chocolate and rolled it in crushed graham crackers so it like s'mores on a stick.

The girls changed into their Pjs and we played truth or dare and talked. In the morning, we had hot cocoa and my father made French toast and we had more cinnamon buns. We played more theatre games downstairs.

FAVORS: We found large winter mugs at Kohl's for about $4 a piece. Each girl got a different one, and when I picked them out, I tried to specify who would get what mug. There was a red gingerbread one, a mug with little penguins and a snow scene, one with a candy cane handle with candy canes saying 5 cents. One had snowmen. Nothing was too religious, and each guest found the perfect one for them. The mugs had a bag filled with hugs and kisses and a candy cane.

Finally, almost 100 pictures were taken at the party with my new digital camera. Since we just bought a photo printer, each girl got to take home a few pictures from the party. The kids and parents were very impressed by everything, and they had a great time.

All of my friends are looking forward to next year's Winter Sleepover.