A Christmas party recap

Thought I’d share a few glimpses of our book club Christmas party!

Sarah did an excellent job decorating her house for the occasion!

Our white elephant books sat wrapped under the tree waiting for us to finish our dissuasion of A Year In Provence. (Which I still say we should all just go there on a book club road (air and sea) trip some day!)

Don’t you love her tree with just sliver and green decorations? I do!

Table runner inspired by The Nester’s tablecloth.

Amazing hot chocolate bar fixings.

This truly scrumtious hot chocolate recipe that must be tried by all.

It just must. Helen at Tartelette is a genius.

And the beautiful book trees were made by our very own Wendy! Thanks Wendy!

I was having way too much fun enjoying the party and didn’t take very many photos.

We also enjoyed some heavenly Gingerbread apple upside down cake that Gwynne made from SmittenKitchen. It looked almost exactly like this… and tastes better than it looks if you can believe it!

This year we got festive with some Pomegranate-Champagne Punch from Martha Stewart

Minus the liqueur, but still YUM!

We finished up our evening with a lil ol’ game of cherades. Wonder what we were acting out?

…next year’s books! Shall I say entertaining? Yes.

(Janet and I will be sharing a vlog soon with all the 2012 book club books!

This will be the first time we’ve released all 12 books at one time. Be excited!)

Each guest left with a mini Broadened Horizons book club journal. I spent many nights cutting up old books, making library cards, counting pages and watching more than my fair share of Netflix while putting these together but enjoyed every minute!

See you January 12th for The Help at Paradise Bakery and Cafe at 7:00pm.

Book Club Thursday

Christmas lights, book discussion, and a heavenly hot chocolate bar… book club Thursday’s are the best!! Especially when they come in December because that means our discussion is paired with our annual Christmas party!

If you weren’t able to come last year, or the year before, or the year before that, this isn’t to be missed!

a few images from Christmas’ past

We’ll be discussing A Year In Provence. We’ll provide the treats and goodies. Just bring your lovely selves and a wrapped book for the exchange.* We’ll have a stress free night this busy Christmas season! (Maybe that last one is your favorite reason to come?!)

Please let us know if you’ll be joining us and if you need directions to Sarah’s lovely home.

See you Thursday at 7:00pm!

* We are playing the secret book swap game again this year!! Please bring a USED copy of one of your favorite books wrapped (and unlabeled) for our book swap game.

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2010 Book Club Christmas Party: A Recap

The fondue was ready…

The table was set..

The atmosphere at Janet’s house was just lovely…

It was December 22, and time for the Book Club Christmas Party!

Complete with our discussion about December’s book – Little Women, a classic game of Telephone Pictionary…

And our “White Elephant” Book Exchange.

We all wrapped a used book we have enjoyed, wrote a three-word description and then did our “white elephant” exchange. We didn’t unwrap our books until everyone was done exchanging, and there were definitely some surprises. Can you guess what these books were from just their three-word descriptions? (The answers are at the bottom of the post.)

1. Murder, Modern, Motivational
2. Comedy, Christian, Laugh
3. Real, Like Lewis, Letters
4. Happiness, Relationship, God
5. Oats, Ginger, Cab
6. Romantic, Spontaneous, Old-Fashioned
7. Adventure, Non-Fiction, Silly
8. Grandpa, Goats, Free Spirit
9. 1800s, Journal Format, Fiction
10. God, Honesty, Growth
11. Mystery, Suspenseful, Male Author

We all left with something new to read and a lovely handmade ornament (constructed from the pages of A Christmas Carol).

And what book club event would be complete without a group photo?

The not-so-successful…

and the successful!

I know I had a great time; I hope the rest of you who attended our Christmas Party did too! We hope you can join us in January as we read The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs!

We’re looking forward to some great reads in 2011!

Answers:
 1.  The Secret Life of Bees
 2.  Stuff Christians Like
 3.  Lord Foulgrin’s Letters
 4.  The Secret of Happiness
 5.  Black Beauty
 6.  The Bridges of Madison County
 7.  Round Ireland with a Fridge
 8.  Heidi
 9.  Stepping Heavenward
10. Honest to God
11. A Painted House