Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

I think our first Ugly Sweater Party was a success. Here are some fun pics from the night:

Our party food for the night: roasted chickpeas, strawberry oat bars, chocolate peppermint cookies, cinnamon stix with peanut butter dip, crackers with salsa hummus, and veggies and hummus

punch glasses edged with crushed candy canes to go along with the tropical, peppermint nog/smoothie

Darren's ugly sweater


and my gorgeous, wreath covered turtleneck

Ryan and Emily Robbins with their awesome white elephant gifts. Ryan was excited about target practice. Poor Justin :(

Eric and Jessica Roberts

Derek and Emily Pratt. Soup and the Sounds of Blackness. Sounds like a fun date night :)

Chris and Nancy Dyson: Birds of a Feather certainly swing together :)

The funniest moment of the night was when Ryan sat down onto his plate of food. His comment was priceless ... "Well...this night just became a lot more interesting!" haha.  It was even funnier when not 5 minutes later Ryan commented on Emily having something on her backside. She had apparently sat down on some food as well, although she couldn't remember when or how. So to memorialize this night in Christmas Party History, we took a picture:



It was hilarious! We all laughed so hard our cheeks hurt...haha...no pun intended!!
  
Ugly Sweater Contest Winners: Ryan won the "SO-HO-HO Ugliest" Ribbon
and took home the coveted trophy. Those are some awesome sweaters!


The Coveted Trophy in all it's glory. He might be missing some pants...but that Rudolph sweater rocks!!

No chimney...no problem!

A few weeks ago I saw a picture similar to this in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine:

...a faux fireplace!

And I thought...why couldn't Darren and I build something like that? And the answer is...WE CAN! So...WE DID!! :)


The before picture (just a blank wall)



The process and materials:

mantel shelf painted white and hung on the wall

foam board ($ store)

Crown molding (Home Depot) glued to the foam board with wood glue.

And the end result:


Darren drew the fire. He's quite the artist!

I think it turned out great! And all for about $10. I LOVE it in our living room!
It makes the room feel so quaint and cozy. If only I could justify leaving it up all year long. :)