Make it Delightful!: CHRISTmas Snowman Dinner

The table was set with the utmost of care,

in anticipation of the wonderful friends that soon would be there.

My royal friend, Shannon, with her Christmas cracker surprises. Notice the crown made out of tissue paper! We all received one of those inside! What GREAT sports my friends are! They actually wore them...for a long time. Everyone received a different color. We had so much fun reading and laughing at the fun jokes that were included. I thought this gift would bomb, but surprisingly, we all had a lot of fun with it.

Some of the party girls!

I love all of these woman so much. THEY are gifts from God to me!

The picture above shows how I gazed upon my table for days before my guests arrived. The colander with the candle was to be their party favor to take home, so I had to remove them, and set them aside to give them to my friends towards the end of the evening. I'm pretty sure they were ALL delighted!

That the colanders were not only cute but also a practical gift was a good idea to me. How many times do you wish you had a small colander to rinse berries, etc.? The cinnamon scented candle can be used anywhere. The rest of the items were simply, but whimsically, embellishments to make it look CUTE! See the finished version below towards the end of this blog post.

I could hardly wait for my guests to arrive and partake!

The anticipation is part of the fun for a hostess who wishes to delight her guests. ;-)

Large snowflakes were strategically place around the table and hung from the chandelier with care. Be careful of hot bulbs when hanging snowflakes though! I burned my finger not keeping this in mind.

Do you notice the red striped theme blending with the snowman theme?

When my guest arrived I had placed the snowflake name tags on their ruby red plates to welcome them to the dining table. The napkins were placed inside small snowman stockings found at Home Depot.

Cream of Christmas Tree Soup

(AKA Cream of Asparagus Soup) with bell pepper Christmas tree cut-outs.

This was a really delicious salad made with Romaine lettuce, avocado slices, pomegranate seeds, candied pecans, and snowflake and star jicama cut outs. Served with Brianna's Real French Vinaigrette Dressing, the one with the artichoke artwork on the label.

I served my guests an almost authentic Swedish Meatball dinner. It was absolutely fabulous, if I do say so myself. It was sooooo easy to make. Did you know in Sweden they mix all of these ingredients together and eat it that way?! I had this very dish in Stockholm this summer. It was amazing there and I duplicated it very easily. Accompanying the mashed potatoes and meatballs were pickled cucumbers and lingonberry sauce. So good! I've read the Swedes add those two ingredients to many of their dishes.

After our main course, I gave each lady a melted snowman cookie and a copy of a poem I read about how the world makes us feel deflated, but God makes us feel elated. My friends seemed to like it. In case you missed it on my previous post. Here it is again.

Here's a close-up of the melting snowman sugar cookie.

I was beyond excited to serve them their Grand Finale Snow Globe dessert of an Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) coconut cupcake with a snowman cheese spreader inserted into the cupcake. I then topped it with a snow globe dome and wrapped a ribbon around the base. I saw similar ones on Pinterest, however, they were fashioned with gelatin, which I wasn't brave enough to attempt! I opted for a sure bet and less time. That's about the cutest darn dessert I have ever seen.

So last, but not least, is the domed colander party favor. I hate to admit it but it was so inexpensive to make. The colanders were $2 at World Market, the cinnamon candles came from the Dollar Tree store. I ordered the mini pine artificial wreaths from an online craft store and purchased the medium and small snowflakes at Hobby Lobby. I believe, all in they cost me about $5 each to make, but oh what a unique take home gift to remember the theme of our party.

Upon washing all the dishes, glassware and flatware, I re-set my table for my niece and her husband and two daughters who will be coming on Christmas Eve with a slightly different look as we don''t need name tags. For this table, I used my whimsical snowman plates