Although it’s December, it was over 70°  in Austin this past Sunday. Yikes! Not the ideal environment for an afternoon hot chocolate party, but lots of fun was still had. Over 30 of my wonderful friends stopped by for some hot chocolate and snacks—some even wearing shorts. 🙂

Here are a few highlights:

Hot Chocolate Bar

Hot chocolate on a spoon – recipe from Giver’s Log but using the microwave to melt the chocolate instead of a double boiler. My friend Bao sent me this idea a few months ago, and I had to run with it. So easy too! I made dark chocolate and milk chocolate spoons using a plastic mold, but everyone went for the dark chocolate. (I bought wooden spoons from Amazon and melting chocolate from Make It Sweet.)

Liquid mixers – whole milk, almond milk, hot water, coffee, Bailey’s, caramel vodka, and Buttershots.

Other toppings/stirrers – peppermint sticks, peppermint sprinkles, cinnamon sticks, cookie sticks, marshmallows, and whipped cream.

Food/Snacks

• Endives stuffed with goat cheese and walnuts from My Recipes
• Mini chicken and broccoli pot pies from Giada – the filling tasted super salty but they were actually just right once baked.
• Roasted sweet potato skewers with a cilantro-jalapeno aioli dip from Hungry Foodies Pharmacy
• Garlic and herb stuffed brussel sprouts from Cooking Stoned – I doubled the recipe and it ended up way too herby – like a mouthful of grass. It would be much better with more cheese.
• La Pham Nikita‘s Pork Potstickers – she’s taking orders for 5 dozen frozen homemade potstickers delivered straight to your door.
• Assorted cheeses from Central Market
• Macarons from La Patisserie by Oven Fresh Delights
• Red velvet cupcakes – I was going to fancy them up using Gimme Some Oven‘s cream cheese frosting recipe but ran short of time so had to go with canned. 😦

Entertainment

La Pham Nikita provided some winter henna. I love my snowflakes!

Decorate-your-own-gingerbread-person station with a variety of frosting, sprinkles, disco dust, and candy for personalization. (I used a Betty Crocker mix to make the gingerbread people since I’ve been working 10 hour days 😦 )

Party favors

Painted mugs – this was an extremely labor-intensive semi-diy project that I have learned to never do again in such large quantities. It took place over 5 evenings: one night to cut out the stencils on Contact Paper using my Cricut and sticking them on each glass mug; one night to paint them using red enamel; one night to bake them; one night to remove the sticky residue left by the baked-on Contact Paper (using erasers, craft knives, and alcohol); and one night to wash/dry the mugs and attach tags. Whew! At least people seemed to appreciate them.

Decor

I went with a bit of a rustic red/beige/white theme. This included a yarn-wrapped foam “Joy” sign; yarn-wrapped, felt, and pine cone ornaments; craft paper signs; and hanging embroidery hoops with holiday fabric that looked like ornaments.

Preparing for the party was quite stressful with my currently hectic day job, but I love filling my home with holiday cheer and friendly faces.

Looking in on some of the last guests.

Now on to the cleanup…

Happy Holidays y’all!
xoxo Linda