party party

We had a really fun Christmas party with friends this year.  Mark and Allison hosted a Christmas cookie exchange/dinner/watching of our favorite movie, White Christmas.  Kate hung out with my parents and older brother for the night, and it was fun to spend some time with friends without kids.

We had some very yummy appetizers...

Allison made corn chowder, pork chili, and vegan butternut squash bisque (back row), and I made Italian chicken soup and zuppa toscana (front row).  We all ate a lot of soup:)

In true Johnson style, we played a ridiculous game after dinner.  This one was called "deck the balls", and each couple competed to see how many ping pong balls they could catch in Christmas gift bags while sitting on the couch and keeping both feet on the floor.  Congrats to the Stobs for winning:)

Mark shot the balls with this crazy thing!

While we watched White Christmas, we ate Christmas cookies and drank homemade hot chocolate.  Here's a sampling of some of the cookies...

toppings for our hot chocolate bar:)

Here's the recipe I used for hot chocolate, and it was very good.  I'd highly recommend it:

2 cups unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
8 cups milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine cocoa, sugar and 1.5 cups milk over medium heat.  Once mixture is combined, add the remaining milk and chocolate chips.  Stir until chocolate is incorporated.

Yay for friends and fun! Merry Christmas!