Tag Archives: Lolita wine glass

Postponing My Annual Cookie Swap Party

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Cookies from my 19th Annual Cookie Swap Party in 2019.

This is not something I thought I would have to do this year.  But I had to cancel my annual cookie swap party on December 7th.  This would have been my 20th year and is something I really look forward to each year.  I always spend the weekend after Thanksgiving getting my home decorated and adding just the right touches for my friends to descend upon my house with their 12 dozen cookies fabulous to swap.  I also have a theme each year – I always work best with a theme, which is always so much fun and engaging for my guests. 

To be honest, when I knew the pandemic showed no signs of leaving any time soon, I decided it would be in everyone’s best interest to cancel.  I mean, I wanted to spread Christmas spirit with my party, not Covid!  Because of this, I didn’t really come up with a 20th anniversary theme.  Sometimes one will come to me while I’m out window shopping or looking through Pinterest.  Sometimes, a friend or my kids will say something that triggers a theme.  Maybe as I go through this holiday season, something will ring true to me and that will become my theme for next year.  (Maybe one of my readers has a suggestion??!!  Throw it my way, pretty please!!!)

My theme last year was Naughty or Nice and it was inspired by a few things.  One day I went to Swoozies at The Summit to look around and I saw cocktail napkins that said “Naughty” and “Nice.”  When I saw these, I remembered a Naughty or Nice Designs by Lolita wine glass I had my eye on and it all just clicked!  Other things fell into place too.  I found Naughty and Nice stir sticks on Amazon for the margaritas I always serve and even Naughty/Nice toilet paper at Target in their dollar section! 

Naughty and Nice napkins
Naughty and Nice cocktail napkins
Designs by Lolita Naughty Nice wine glass
There’s always a recipe on the bottom of each Designs by Lolita wine glass!
Could these stir sticks be any cuter?!
These glasses were perfect for the theme too!
Maybe this was a little too much? !

The “piece de resistance” was the Naughty/Nice necklace I saw on the Instagram page of my friend and artist, Kerry Leasure of Here a Chick There a Chick.  She posted a photo an incredible vintage looking necklace she had created.  It was perfect for my party!  First of all, if you don’t know about Kerry, you need to.  She creates the most incredible and quirky jewelry that is one of a kind in addition to being serious conversation pieces!  I was so excited to see the necklace and I snapped it up immediately!  It went great with my Santa “Someone’s Been Naughty” t-shirt!

Kerry Leasure necklace creation!
Here a Chick There a Chick logo
I also bought these cute ornament earrings from Kerry – very mid-century modern ornaments too!
Neck and t-shirt together – perfection!
Yep…I’ve been naughty!

Then one night, I was sitting at my laptop and thinking I needed just one more thing for the party – besides the cookies, of course.  Granted I was focusing on the “naughty” more than the “nice” side of the party and started searching Amazon for a mugshot backdrop banner.  You know, the ones you stand in front of for the mugshot before they book you at the police station?  I ended up finding one that had large cards to fill out that said “Santa Saw You…”  This was the perfect touch for the party!  And I found a few Naughty/Nice Santa hats too.  They were reversible so guests could choose.  Not surprisingly, all my guests chose Naughty…what can I say? 

Mugshot area right at the entrance to my house.
Lucy helping me straighten the mugshot poster earlier in the day
Toni and Cristina
Cristina
Toni
Rhonda
Denise
Silvia
Lisa W.
Me!
Marie
Lisa M.
Lisa P

Of course, the cookie swap part was as wonderful as ever.  Everyone left with Christmas boxes filled with assorted cookies.  The smell of sugar was prevalent all over my house!  Several friends stayed and cleaned up my kitchen and helped me put my house back together.  This party kicks off the Christmas holidays for me and I will miss not being able to have that this year.  Planning this party is part of the fun of it every year.  But it gives me time to dream up the perfect theme for next year’s 20th anniversary.  I already have the date set on my calendar – December 6, 2021.

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My Senior Prom (Part 2)

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Celebrating my Senior Prom birthday with my handsome husband! Cheers to 60 years!!!

This is Part Two of a two part story of my 60th birthday party celebration in 2019.

“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Dance floor ready with balloons!

The last week of party prep, Eddie was really able to help with a number of things, including completing our 50s couple look by buying a white tux jacket online! He helped get the wine and beer bought and anything else bar related. One huge item he helped with the day of the event was blowing up gold and black balloons! Boy! That was a dizzying task! We really needed to have those blown up before heading to Miami Café. Then we had to fit them into the car with everything else!!!  These balloons covered the floor in the restaurant and were the last decorations we set up for the party.

I headed down to Miami Café about 4 hours before the party ready to decorate! My prom committee – Denise and Vanessa – and later, Cristina and my daughter, Emily, joined in to help get the restaurant party ready. This included tablecloths, centerpieces and getting the photo backdrop done. We added assorted yearbooks as décor in the restaurants front windows in keeping with the theme.

Eddie pouring up some tasty refreshments!
Eddie had a blast tending bar for everyone!
Eddie decided to provide a few bottles of bourbon for the gang.
Wine selection for the party –

Eddie arrived a few hours beforehand to set up the bar. We had agreed only to have beer and wine and a signature Tito’s cocktail. But Eddie decided to bring some bourbon from his collection and boy was that a hit! He proceeded to set up the bar displaying everything we had. Eddie played bartender for most of the night and had a blast!

Corsage table courtesy of Denise Koch!
Denise created beautiful corsages for all my party guests!

Denise told me back in January she wanted to create a corsage table for my guests to choose from. Being the event planner extraordinaire that she is, she not only created wrist,  lapel corsages and boutonnières, she even put them in plastic containers. They were all so beautiful and I know it took a lot of time to pull together. This was such a special part of the party to me.

Still laughing about Chris’ outfit!!!
These two guys stood out in their white tuxedo jackets!
Me realizing this person with the long black hair and beard is Chris Miller!
With Chris and his fiance, Chris
Party on people!!!

Right at 7 p.m. the guests started arriving…and what fun it was to see everyone all dressed up and really getting into the theme of the party! I found out that night, that so many of my guests did not attend their own proms, so they were really doing it up right that night. There were a few who REALLY went over the top, like my friend Chris Miller. I saw him walking in but I didn’t recognize him. In fact, I thought he was walking through the restaurant to see the owner, Luis. As he got closer to me, I realized who it was and I couldn’t stop laughing! He came dressed in full on 70s with a black rock star hair and he even dyed his beard to complete the look! Every time I look at any photo of Chris from my party I literally laugh out loud!

With Marie and her duct tape dress!
Marie Packer and Donna Harkins

A close second to Chris was my friend Marie.  She made her dress out of orange, white and gray duct tape! I couldn’t tell what she was wearing until I got closer and I was completely floored at how great it looked! In the 2001, Duck Tape brand duct tape started a prom competition awarding scholarships to the best duct tape prom dress. I swear, Marie would have won had she been in high school at that time! She even wore a roll of tape as a bangle bracelet!

Steve and Valorie Parrish
Miguel Vilchez, Willie and Frances Chriesman
Willie gets a corsage from Denise
Cristina Almanza, Emily Redmond, me, Vanessa Vargas and Chris Miller
Chris Miller, me and Chris Noland
Kathy and Ron Fish
Chris and Vanessa
Carlos Aleman, me, Isabel Rubio and WIllie Chriesman – HICA friends
Shannon Simril, Emily and me
Boondocks Girls photo
Chris and Chris
Eily Redmond
Jerrod Brown and Cristina Almanza
Shannon and Emily
Tammy and Mac
With Frances and Willie Chriesman
With Kate and David
With Carlos Aleman
With Tina Savas and Benga Harrison
With Tina Savas – she got this dress at the thrift store for $8! Love her style!
Sherree and Kip Wright
Dancing with my boy!

Luis brought out his incredible food – jerk chicken, rice and beansas the crowd grew and even added some Cuban sandwiches to the buffet. I was all over those! Everyone took full advantage of the photo backdrop and gave their best cheesy prom poses. Vanessa and Cristina served as official photographers until Cristina’s boyfriend Jerrod (a professional photographer!) arrived. I’m usually the person taking the photos so it was a little strange handing off my camera to someone else. I definitely had fun the next day looking through all the photos!

Loved thanking my friends and family for coming to celebrate my birthday
Grabbing some of Luis Delgado’s fabulous food! Can’t believe I didn’t get a photo of everything!!!
Making sure my hubby got fed!
Emily serves as MC during the prom king and queen coronation
Prom King Eddie
Vanessa helps with the Prom Queen coronation!
Getting my sash!
A hug for the Prom King
First dance…to Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”
First dance…
My guests join in for the first dance…

Once everyone was fed, it was time to crown the prom king and queen. My daughter, Emily, served as the MC during this portion of the party. Eddie was crowned prom king. Then I was crowned prom queen, as a few of my friends commented that the voting was fixed. Of course, there wasn’t any voting so the joke was on them! (Ha-ha…I love my friends and this is so typical!) DJ Rod quickly began playing our first dance song, Ed Sheeran’s, “Perfect.” It was at this point that I really thought I was going to cry. Everything had turned out so perfect and I was just so happy to be celebrating with so many friends and family members. As we danced, Eddie was grinning ear to ear and that made me even happier. We danced a short while together when I called everyone to join us on the dance floor, and they did…

I used my new Designs by Lolita “Sixty is Sassy” wine glass for the evening!

Sadly, my mother couldn’t be at the party because she had been sick all week. We were both disappointed but I felt like she was with me because I was able to wear a rhinestone bracelet she wore to her senior prom in 1956. I also brought along my “60 and Sassy” Lolita wine glass to use at the party because Designs by Lolita creates a wine glass for every occasion – I kid you not!

Louise’s Cake was enjoyed by everyone!  So much so that we didn’t have anything left over!!!  Emily Redmond helped with the cake and making sure everyone got a slice.  You really can’t go wrong with cakes from this great little shop in Hoover.  As I’ve said before, we get all our Zuniga-Odom special occasion cakes from this bakery.

 

Emily lights the candles!
Really have no idea what I was saying here!!!
Make that wish!
Happy 60th birthday and senior prom!

I wish I could post all the photos that were taken that night.  Reliving the party through these photos always puts a huge smile on my face and brings back great memories.  My friends and family still talk about this party and I’m so glad they had a memorable time as well.  Here are a few more photos and I dare you not to smile as you go through them!

 

Chris and Vanessa
Sherree and Kip Wright