Secret Santa Stamp Camp

Yesterday was my Annual Secret Santa Stamp Camp! We had a great time and it was a fun way to kick off the holiday season.. now I'm really feeling like it's Christmas! Jerry put up the tree in our TV room just before everyone got there. We've never put it in the TV room before, usually it's in the living room. But with our new wooden floors I had pictured it there and think it actually looks pretty good. He even strung up some lights around the ceiling shelf which we've never done before either. Even though it's not decorated yet, I can finally say that .... "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" !!!!

So back to Stamp Camp.... we had a great time together.. the few but mighty! I had the gals make the little Reindeer Boxes with matching gift cards .. the same one's I had made gobs of for the Craft Bazaar a couple of weeks ago....

So here's the group starting their project...

and then showing off the results....

We had a potluck and I can't believe I missed pictures of all the food! I had made a vegetable lasagna (OK not me but Stoffers made it), Cheryl brought a wonderful chicken and rice dish. We had salad  from Rhoda and garlic bread and croissants and Judy brought marinated green beans and Mona made some awesome couscous or is it kooskoos... either way it was wonderful!! Jean brought a great bread and spread platter with greek humus and variety of cheese spreads and Ronnie brought a fantastic pumpkin cream pie from Coco's...yum!

After we made the reindeer box project we had our Secret Santa Swap... again I was so excited to play I totally forgot to get pictures.. wow that's not like me... must have been something in the pie! All the gifts were great... everyone was being so polite for about the first 6 gifts... no stealing... but then come #7 and Judy...now that girl knows how to play!!! She started the stealing and everything went downhill from there!! hee hee hee... the trading (or stealing) got into full gear... All the gifts were so great that it wasn't surprising that everyone ended up with a gift perfect for them! We had  a few Starbucks gift certificates, and couple of incredible packets of "stamping goodies"... wow ... I got a beautiful crystal flower vase, there was this cool bow-maker that was a great idea, some cool containers for stamping supplies and a kit of paper Christmas ornaments with a Simply Stampin Kit and stamp set. A good time was had by all !!!

I also wanted to show you the beautiful gift that Mona brought me back from her vacation in India.. it's a beautiful table decoration... and it fits perfect on my kitchen table.

I love it.. thank you soooo much Mona.. you are so very thoughtful! These pictures don't do it justice... you can't see the intricate hand stitching on it.. and the vibrant colors.. just beautiful!

Here's a few shots of some gift baskets and projects
I've been working on along with the sample cards I displayed

Thank you to all you little elves that came... loved the gifts, loved the food..

but especially loved spending time with you!!