Life with LeeLee and B: 'Tis the season...to entertain!

Who doesn't LOVE a good party?!

Well, I love being the guest AND the host! I love having people over to my house...especially during the holidays! Everyone's homes feel so warm and cozy, plus I love to get together with those that are truly special to me during this time!

Annie Louise (my 15-month old daughter) and I hosted our first annual (yes, we hope to make this a tradition) "Aunts and SheShe" Christmas party.

Pssst...SheShe is my mom's grandmother name.

Below are some pictures, as well as some of my tips for hosting your own party!

When entertaining, I try to think small. Yes, it's fun to have those great, big ole parties, but when you have kids and it's a generally busy time of the year, you will have more fun and you won't stress out so much if you do something more intimate.

Plus, you can really do it up for a small guest list!

First step is to send out invitations! And who doesn't love a cute invitation?

We always try to purchase things locally and support our neighbors, so we use

The Write Impression for all things paper - invitations, thank you notes, stickers, Christmas cards, everything!

Below is a picture of the invitation we used for our party - we wanted something fun and cute! Remember, your invitation always sets the tone for your party!

Decorating for Christmas parties is so much easier because you already have most of the decorating done! We set up in the kitchen at our house, so I decorated around pieces we already had...like this antique cupboard we have!

Add some Christmas bows and a small wreath, and you're good to go! Hang some ornaments from your chandelier to add another special touch...so festive!

Here's the start of the dessert "station - we purchased some inexpensive melamine plates from Target - these will be great to have on hand for future parties!

Here's a wide angle shot, so you can see it all together!

For the menu, we decided to do just desserts, as our party was in the afternoon.

We had peanut brownie bites, sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles, cake batter truffles, peppermint chocolate chunk cookies and chocolate cake with candy cane icing.

When planning your menu, stay with your theme (and your budget) and try to prepare early! The last thing you want to do is get stressed out right before your guests arrive!

We were able to prepare a lot of this the night before, which was a HUGE help!

We also had a hot chocolate bar, which seems to be very popular right now! We bought cute, inexpensive mugs and had all the fixins! We have a Keurig, so I bought hot chocolate, cider and coffee K-cups - we also had little marshamallows, candy canes and whip cream! Everyone enjoyed this, and I'm thinking about keeping it all out for us to

enjoy for the rest of the Christmas season!

We made these cute stackable marshmallow snowmen for decorations (or to eat!)...just take a lollipop stick (can be found in the cake decorating section of any hobby store), stack 3 marshmallows, add a face with gel icing and use pretzel sticks for the arms!

So easy and SO cute!

Besides just enjoying the company of our guests, we also had an activity!

All of my family members always ask for ornaments and paintings with Annie Louise's handprints. Well, anyone with a toddler knows that it's nearly impossible to make those by yourself. Since we had the extra hands, we made all sorts of fun crafts and everyone got to take one home to enjoy!

Here we are making handprint pieces of art...

and ornaments...

and we even made salt dough ornaments!

But more than anything, I'm glad that I got to spend some much needed time with some pretty important women in my life! And that's what the Christmas season is ALL about!