Mini Pies and Scarf Swaps... The Good Stuff

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I recently had the ladies of Parker's squadron over for a little Christmas party fun. We love hosting and coming up with reasons to have people over, but no reason is needed this time of year! Christmas parties are so exciting, and I get a little sad when they are over. 

Since this was going to be an all-girl party, I wanted to do something girly. I wanted girly food and a girly theme with girly activities. Our lives pretty much center around those handsome husbands of ours, so this party was all about us! And what do girls love? Accessories. And what is every girl's favorite winter accessory? A scarf. Thus, a scarf swap party was born!

Before we get to the logistics of the scarf swap, let's talk about the food. #priorities. We had our party on a Tuesday evening, which means I didn't have a lot of time to prep. That's smack dab in the middle of the work week, so cooking all day was simply out of the question. 

I love to make and serve homemade pies at parties, but I knew time would prohibit that. I also knew that girls are too polite, and nobody ever wants to be the first one to cut a slice. You can make this amazing pie, and your friends may not eat it because they don't want to cut into it. Yall, sad but true. To solve both of my problems (no time and overly polite friends), I turned to Marie Callender's® Dessert Pies and Reddi-wip® for a little assistance.

Instead of one pie, I made 10 mini pies, and it couldn't have been simpler! Here's what you need...

1 Marie Callender's Dessert Pie of your choice (I chose Razzleberry, because how fun does that sound?)

1 can Reddi-wip

small clear plastic cups

I found all of my ingredients at Walmart. The pie can be found in the frozen dessert section, and Reddi-wip can be found in the refrigerated section.

1. Bake your pie according to the instructions on the box. 

2. Let cool completely. Then scoop pie by the spoonfuls into your plastic cups. Try to get an even mix of filling/crust in each cup. 

3. Top each serving with Reddi-wip! Make sure your pie is cool so the Reddi-wip won't melt, although it's still delicious even if it melts. This is just a presentation thing.

Voila! One pie made 10 mini pies for me, but you can make more or less depending on how much you put into each cup. These babies were gobbled up and the hit of the food table! Share the joy of pie, friends!

Now, onto the scarf swap! It's very similar to a white elephant, but with scarfs as the gifts! Everyone brings a scarf they no longer wear anymore and places it in the center of the table. We all draw numbers (in our case, 1-12 since there were 12 of us) to determine the order.

The first person picks a scarf. The second person can either steal or choose another scarf from the pile. Keep going down the line. Once a scarf has been stolen twice, it is frozen and can't be stolen again. The person who goes first also gets to go last and can pick from any of the scarves that have not been frozen. Super simple and super fun!

Everyone goes home with a new scarf to wear and love! This is such a fun activity to do with your girlfriends, and BONUS: it's free! Since everyone brings a scarf from home they don't wear anymore, that saves the cost of having to buy a gift. Winning!

Dancing The Night Away, 1940's Style

Something Parker and I had been looking forward to for weeks was a Valentine's Day 1940's themed dinner dance put on by the Military Aviation Museum. It just screamed "fun, new experience" to us. Here's a fun fact about us: we love to dance! Here's another fun fact: we really aren't very good. We took country/western dance lessons in college and picked up about 3 moves, and those 3 moves are all we have. We love it though. We used to go dancing all the time in college, and I miss having a place close to just go dancing whenever you want. When we found out there was a dance on Valentine's Day, we were all in. And the 1940's theme? Yes, please.

The dance itself was located in an airplane hangar, a fact that definitely contributed to some of my husband's excitement over the evening. We had visited this museum before, but of course we did an abbreviated tour of the planes again and took the time to snap a few fun pictures. 

Two of our good friends joined us which made the evening all the more fun. I kept saying that the evening represented premium people watching. There were couples of all ages in attendance, and people really went all out with the costume portion. We learned traditional 40's-style dance steps, which we did for about 10 seconds before resuming our two-stepping. Hats off to those who have mastered swing dancing. We couldn't get the rhythm! 

I loved picking out our outfits for the dance. Parker was easy because he had a khaki uniform that looks fairly vintage and a leather bomber jacket that tied his look together. He even cocked his cover (hat) to the side like they used to. I thought he nailed it and looked so handsome! For my costume, I bought some black gloves and rented a little faux fur cape that was really fun to wear. My dress really wasn't 40's at all, but I was dying to wear it. I bought this dress from Target at the end of last year for Parker's squadron Christmas party. Life didn't quite go as planned last December as many of you know, and I ended up having surgery and spending some time in the ER the week of the party. So, no Christmas party for me. Therefore, I was so excited to wear the dress for the dance. I consider it a fairly conservative dress, but I'm sure it was much too short for the 40's. Even so, I loved it! I also tried out red lip stick for the first time since my 7-year-old dance recital. When in Rome...

This was such a cool thing to experience together and something we will always remember when we look back on our time in Virginia. So glad we stopped to document so we have all of these pictures! I I edited the above pictures to have a vintage feel for the full effect. Parker wanted to do the same, so here is his version of a 1940's photograph. Which is more vintage? Well, neither. They were taken in 2015 and edited on a Mac.

Such a fun night!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Party 2012!

My friend Britni and I decided to host a Christmas party for our friends here in Pensacola this past weekend, and we had a blast! We had a tacky Christmas sweater contest, a make-shift Christmas photo booth, a dirty Santa gift exchange, and more food and adult beverages than anyone should consume in one evening. It was perfect. People got into the sweater contest, and it was very entertaining to see the boys so decked out in what looked like their great-grandmother's sweater. Ryan Corridan won the contest with Ryan Stewart coming in a close second. Tucker the Corgi came in third! I had never heard the term "Dirty Santa" before, but we play a really fun Christmas exchange game with Parker's family every year that I thought would be a blast to play with our friends. Everyone brought a wrapped $10 gift (guys brought guy gifts, girls brought girl gifts), and we had a gift exchange. We all drew numbers, and you could either open a new gift on your turn or steal one that had already been stolen. Once the gift was stolen twice, it was frozen. The boys were pretty funny about it! We are so blessed with such amazing friends down here, and it was so fun to have a themed party. I will let the pictures tell the rest!

My lovely co-host!

Gift exchange!

Parker and I had changed out of our tacky sweaters by this point...way too hot when it's 80 degrees outside in December!

Girls with the Christmas tree!

Happy Tuesday everyone!