Christmas Cookie Decorating Party 2011

Nathan and I have a now-annual tradition of hosting a Christmas cookie decorating party at our place each December. This year's party was just over a week ago. We like to hold it around finals time for the students at the college where Nathan works, and invite the music students he coaches and accompanies for a study break and some Christmas cheer. We also invite all our nearby friends, of course.

I bake dozens of sugar cookies:

{this one photo was shamelessly stolen off of a student's facebook album, as I forgot to take a picture of the sugar cookies.}

And plenty of gingerbread men:

And people get to work frosting and decorating the cookies, fashioning them into personal works of art and plating them up on plastic plates they can take home with them.

I also provide goodies for everyone to much on:

{I was particularly pleased with my cheese platter. And the crockpot hot chocolate was a big hit! I followed this recipe as a starting point, and doubled it, but used only one can of sweetened condensed milk and used semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than milk chocolate. I think it would have been too sweet according to the original recipe, but your tastes may vary. Healthy? No. Delicious? Yes. This is real hot chocolate, my friends, and nothing like that powdered concoction of a certain alpine lass.}

Who doesn't like the salty-sweet combination of pretzels and chocolate?

Nathan, as always, requested sausage cheese balls. This year I used this recipe, which is very similar to my Mom's recipe that I usually use, with the addition of cream cheese. I doubled everything except for the cream cheese, and Nathan thought they came out perfectly.

And I made roasted vegetable crostini appetizers, inspired by something a friend once made which I had particularly enjoyed.

{Brush baguette slices lightly with olive oil and broil until golden. Roast zucchini and red pepper, or veggies of your choice, with olive oil, salt, and pepper until desired doneness is reached. Spread baguettes with a soft cheese - I used Boursin herb and garlic - and top with roasted vegetables. The red, green, and white color combo I used seemed perfect for Christmas, but you could use yellow squash, green peppers, eggplant, onions, or anything you want.

And that was our Christmas party this year. A lot of preparation, of course, but very worth it. It's always fun to spend time with friends at Christmas, and I firmly believe that every college student needs a Christmassy home to escape to for a few hours along about the time December rolls around.

Nathan and I were reminiscing and figuring that this must have been our fourth year having this party.

Well, let's do it again next year!