As usual, First Dinner was amazing. We are truly blessed to fill our dining room table with such wonderful people. I wanted to share a few photos from the event. I am the master of budget parties (okay, self-proclaimed, but I love finding simple and inexpensive ideas to make even the simplest of ideas look grand!) First the invitations: a simple design that won my heart this year among the new cards I designed - I added a touch of red glitter for pizzazz. I carried the same design into the place cards and favor boxes. Each place tag was a circle mounted to red cardstock and tied to a candycane with blue ribbon. Foam snowflakes adorned the plates and under the vases, (found in the $1 bin at Target). I'm a bit partial to polka-dots and I seem to somehow work them in to just about every party I do! Here, in the napkins. 

The kid's table was fun to set up. My husband built a bench to give it more seating. Each place setting had a fun red snowflake cup with a twisty straw and an ornament they could color and take home. They enjoyed decorating the ornaments even more than I anticipated.

Of course, I can send no one home empty handed. My son and I baked and decorated buttery spritz cookies with red and blue sprinkles as a sweet little gift for each family. I found the perfect little boxes and bags by Martha Stewart (she has everything!) and added my own labels to match the invitation and place tags. 

Dinner this year was a huge success, and as always I am looking forward to this year and what it has to bring. Without a doubt, it will involve these 20 special people and even some who were unable to attend this year's First Dinner. Happy New Year!