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Post by amberorduna on Dec 6, 2012 21:25:44 GMT -5
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Post by amberorduna on Oct 21, 2012 17:09:24 GMT -5
So my theme this year is, I'm dreaming of a Pink Christmas. Someone donated am artificial tree and I want to paint it pink. Any thoughts? Has anyone attempted this? Weigh in please. I fear it'll take a TON of spray paint and be difficult to cover the green. What do you think? It's a 5-6 foot tree and it would be so perfect. I know after it gets painted I won't be able to keep it for future years.
Thoughts and ideas please???
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Post by amberorduna on Oct 21, 2012 16:56:43 GMT -5
Oh I forgot I also googled griswold family christmas and looked for an image. I found the silhouette of a station wagon with a gigantic tree on top and used that as my picture for invite Logo. Vista print was doing a special and I made magnets for my save the date with the station wagon logo on them and they were free, so I only had to pay for shipping.
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Post by amberorduna on Oct 21, 2012 16:53:26 GMT -5
Someone requested me to post what I did for this theme. This year will be my 6th cookie exchange and last year was the first theme and it was so fun so I'm doing it again this year.
I always use Evite for my invite because the ladies can all post their cookie choice so everyone knows what has been taken. Then everyone emails me their recipe. Here is the wording for my invite:
Dig into the attic, dust off your VCR And find National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. This year’s cookie exchange will be filled with all The dysfunction and love the Griswold family stands for. And one of our games this year Will include some laughs from this hilarious family classic. That’s right; this will be the most hilarious, Trashiest and tackiest cookie exchange EVER!!! Prizes This Year Include…. Best tasting cookie, of course! Cookie you are most likely to make for your family over & over Cookie arrangement that most represents the Griswold family Ugly/tackiest Christmas sweater I hope you have a great time watching this movie (Though, it is not recommended for young ears) Searching for recipes and enjoying getting into the season. Remember there are no duplicate recipes!!!. Email me your cookie recipe as soon as possible. The recipe book goes to print November 25th.
I'm not really that creative with wording. I always do a right left game and we did a fill in the blank of movie lines as well. Also, we wore ugly christmas sweaters too. I have started making recipe books because no remembered to bring copies of their recipes and it is fun to have that at the end of the day. I also made the dry mix of gingerbread pancakes attached with the recipe for a favor. You can see in the invite wording what categories were prize worthy that year, I change it every year.
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Post by amberorduna on Sept 27, 2012 16:05:10 GMT -5
That is such a great idea. My cookie exchange is always the first Sunday of December and so it's tight between Turkey day and my CE because I only have a week to get it all done, decorated and bake! My poor husband, he does it for me every year. Ladies this will be my 11th year having a cookie exchange. This years theme is Blast From the Past. People coming can make a cookie they made at one of my past cookie exchanges. If they are new to the CE they can bring any cookie. I wll not be decorating my house early for christmas this year (my CE is on 12/9) and my husband goes nuts when I run around trying to decorate and get ready for CE. So I decided I am going to just decorate for my theme. Blast From the Past. I do not want to do the standard 50's 60's decor so I am looking for ideas on what I can do. Thanks
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Post by amberorduna on Sept 27, 2012 16:02:29 GMT -5
I love that shirt and thanks for the site. I'll check it out. What an awesome theme, and a reason to celebrate, for sure! I'm afraid I'm not going to be too helpful with categories - I tend to like the snarkier side of battling any form of cancer, which some may find offensive (I saw a t-shirt the other day that said "Yes, they're fake...my real ones tried to kill me" again, not everyone's cup of tea!). I suppose that's my defense mechanism for dealing with difficult topics...just laugh at it! If you're looking for prizes or something like that, what about worry stones - you know, those little rocks that often have inspirational words/phrases on them? www.worrystone.net/
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Post by amberorduna on Aug 3, 2012 18:27:57 GMT -5
Hi ladies. So who gets excited by summers end to stat thinking cookies? I do!!!! So what are y'all doing this year? The first few years I didn't really do a theme as I was just getting my feet wet and get myself comfortable with food, drinks, starting games and prizes, awards for cookies & catagories. Last year was my 5th year and my first theme. It was a Griswold Family Christmas. It was so fun! We had an ugly sweater contest along with some tacky displays and decorations.
This year I wanted to do another theme and I had a perfect idea! Something that hits close to home. Last September I went in for a breast reduction and during surgery they found breast cancer. Long story short, it was a miracle, God protected me and I am completely healthy and here today. But I am still walking through this and it isn't over. Last year I was determined to have my cookie exchange even though I was in the middle of chemo. My friends were great, they brought food and did way more than they have ever done in years past to make it happen. I have 3 young kids and was 35 upon diagnosis and so this years cookies exchange will be celebrating by the theme of "I'm Dreaming of A Pink Christmas"!!!!
But I need help coming up with some cookie catagories for winning cookies. We always have best tasting and this year I will have Prettiest In Pink but I need some other ideas. Any ideas you all have for anything to help me would be great!!!!!
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Post by amberorduna on Aug 3, 2012 17:30:39 GMT -5
That is so adorable!!!!
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Post by amberorduna on Aug 3, 2012 17:26:47 GMT -5
I make up little voting sheets. I also have different categories. Best display (to urge the girls to not bring in Tupperware), best tasting, and then usually 2 others like best newbie and the last category fits with my theme. So the year we did the Griswold Family Christmas the catagory was cookie you're most likely to make over and over. Another years it was the prettiest cookie. Something like that. So we all go around and taste the cookies and the girls all have ballots and pencils to vote so they aren't pressured to vote for someone/something specific. In the past we would take marbles and place them in front of our favorites but that still felt awkward to some of the girls.
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Post by amberorduna on Aug 3, 2012 17:13:34 GMT -5
This will be my 6th year. The first year I invited everyone I could think of knowing that the rules and baking alone would scare some off. So the first and second year we had about 12-13 girls which was perfect for 6 dozen cookies. Each girl took home 1/2 dozen of each type of cookie. BUT the last 2 years have gotten crazy popular and year 3 we had 15 girls and years 4 & 5 we had 18 girls!!!!! I took polls, sent out evaluations after each year to see what the majority wanted to do. No one wanted to cap the number of people and oddly no one seemed to mind baking 9 dozen cookies. So that is where we will be at this year again. 15-18 girls baking 9 dozen cookies. Each lady takes home 8 dozen about 1/2 dozen of each type of cookie and we need 1 dozen for tasting and voting.
I also have a different theme every year with different categories for each prize winning cookies with some hot ticket prizes. I wanted to inspire the girls to really get into it and THEY DO!
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Post by amberorduna on Sept 18, 2011 23:14:56 GMT -5
I do my cookie exchanges on the first Sunday of December every year. I do it on Sunday b/c most of us are young moms and it gives us moms a chance to bake on Saturday while dads are home. and I do it at 2pm so people can do last minute finishing touches, go to church or finish last minute mis-haps. So 2pm on the first Sunday of Decemeber is the cookie exchange every year. Its a date the girls can remember and count on and it is such a great way to ring in December not to mention it forces Christmas to be up and ready quickly.
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Post by amberorduna on Sept 18, 2011 23:08:41 GMT -5
This year I'm doing a Griswold Family Christmas. Ugly Christmas Sweaters, trashy decor and the award formost nostalgic cookie.
Last year was the first year I did a theme and I did T'was Night Before Christmas. We all wore PJ's and had an award for the Best Tasting Cookie.
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