Maisie's 1st Birthday Party

Okay, so I am a little late posting about Maisie's 1st Birthday Soiree, but you know it has been a little busy! All part of the trials and tribulations of being born 1 week before Christmas! The party went well ~ a much smaller gathering than our usual birthday parties ~ there were only 15 kids in attendance (and 2 of those are 2 months old so they really don't count) as opposed to the usual 22-25! It was actually quite nice not having the usual zoo if I do say so myself ~ made loading up and heading over to see Santa a much easier accomplished task. Her party was a "Winter One-derland" theme ~ originally I thought I would do a Princess party (since she is one) but then decided that this would be her only chance EVER to have a "Winter One-derland" theme so I took that and ran with it. Now the original plan was that my brother was going to don a Santa suit and show up at the party and let everyone sit on his lap for some final Santa pleading, deal making, etc., but something came up and he wasn't going to be able to attend so I had to find a replacement and fast! Fortunately for me there is a section in my neighborhood that hosts their own Santa gathering every year so I contacted them to plea my case and hope that they would be willing to do a private Santa viewing for Maisie's party. The deal with this group is that you donate a toy in exchange for sitting on Santa's lap and then they donate all of the toys they collect to an organization of their choice. I had asked that gifts not be brought for Maisie but instead be brought for a child who wasn't going to have a Christmas so this really worked out perfectly ~ the Santa group agreed to do a private showing for us and in return we donated all of the toys brought to the party to their group instead of where I was going to take them ~ it was a win win situation for all involved.
So for the party the older kids played and jumped for a while and then we had pizza (which Maisie LOVES by the way ~ she is a real junker), cake (ate it like you wouldn't believe), and then headed off to see Santa. After they sat on Santa's lap, Mrs. Claus gave each guest their party favors ~ a make your own snow globe kit, and a reusable hand warmer ~ and then everyone left. Maisie got a few gifts ~ apparently not all of our friends can follow instructions! ~ so she did get some practice in unwrapping presents before the Big Day that was soon to follow! All in all it went very well ~ this will be her first and last December birthday party ~ I am all about 1/2 birthdays! When she turns 2 we will celebrate with the family and have cake and a present or two, but as far as a big party goes, we will postpone that until June and celebrate her turning 2 1/2! A birthday 1 week before Christmas is just too much ~ maybe when she gets old enough to just be having a couple of girls over for a slumber party we will move back into December soirees, but we've got many parties to go before that happens!