We had a fun, festive, and hectic holiday season this year!  Not only did we have all of the usual preparations and celebrations of this time of year, but we also had my sister’s rehearsal and wedding!  With family in town for that, we hosted a big New Year’s Eve party too!  With so much to celebrate, this year we combined our annual Jason Angelini Photography Christmas party with our son’s first birthday party.  Everyone was invited to join us for our son’s Winter ONEderland!

Our son is an incredible baby.  He’s probably the most easy-going baby we’ve had!  Or else we’ve really lowered our expectations by this point  He was born just before Christmas and I had so much fun putting together the details and decor for a winter themed party.  We had yummy treats, games, crafts, and all of the things we traditionally have at our Christmas party every year, including Santa and his face painting, balloon twisting elf!  But a winter ONEderland wouldn’t be the same without SNOW!  We had a pool filled with snow and snow falling from the sky!  The kids had a blast!  They slipped and slid in the snow and had a snow ball fight.  Our kids were talking about the snow (and asking for more!) for weeks!

Thank you to everyone who came over and helped us celebrate one year with our sweet baby boy.  We love him dearly and thank God for blessing our family with him!

Every month we took a picture of our son in the exact same outfit to show him growing into it, and then out of it, during his first year.  Those pictures were at the front table, along with the book “Snow” which we asked guests to sign with a birthday message or memory.

Because our son was born the weekend of the opening of the new Star Wars, his friend during his monthly pictures was Chewbacca.  These pictures of him in the same chair with Chewy every month hung in the hallway.

Scattered on the food counter were snowflake frames with pictures of our baby laying in his crib each month of his first year.

“In the meadow we can build a snowman…”  We tried to have a snowman or snow theme to the food.  There was a snowman making station with marshmallows, pretzel sticks, and carrots.  We had white chocolate covered pretzels to look like snowy branches.  The candy buffet had white and blue candy.  And every year the hot chocolate bar is a big hit!  Our kids would eat a cup filled just with whipped cream if they thought they could get away with it.

The activity table had a craft kit to make a beaded wreath ornament, stickers to create Santa’s Workshop, holiday themed tattoos, crayons and coloring books, puzzles, and a letter to Santa to fill out and bring to him.  A sign on the table let kids know there was more fun outside as well!

Eggz is one seriously talented elf!  She does the balloon twisting and face painting every year and the kids cannot get enough!

SANTA!!!!!  You can feel the excitement when Santa arrives!  The kids rush to the door to greet him!

Florida snow.  Maybe not as great as the real stuff, but still lots of fun to play in!  Now if only we had enough to build a snowboarding hill…

The birthday boy really didn’t want much to do with the snow.

Time for cake!  Considering his unenthusiastic reaction to the cake at his Smash the Cake session, I wasn’t expecting him to be overly excited for this cake.  He tolerated sitting near it, but didn’t want to eat any.

It was an amazing day and bittersweet thinking back on how fast our baby’s first year went by!  Though he’s walking, saying some words, and teaching us more about his personality, thankfully he is still snuggly and sweet so I still get cuddles.  I hope he doesn’t grow out of that too soon!  

And to end this party post, pictures with Santa are always a really special part of our annual Christmas parties!  Here are some of the Santa pictures from this year: