Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Polar Express Party, Recipes & Free Printables

I hosted a little Polar Express inspired breakfast party yesterday for some moms & babies.  I had so much fun putting it all together that I thought I'd share some pictures (and printables) with you. The Polar Express is one of my favorite Christmas books so I took my queue for food and decor right from the story.

Mornings are crazy around here so I knew the only way I'd be able to pull off a morning get together was by selecting only food and decor that I could do in advance.  The last thing you want to be doing at 8 am is feeding a toddler AND hanging snowflakes!  SOOO not happening.  I was able to do everything here the day before so I could just relax and brew the coffee the morning of.

 
{DECOR}
I threaded some snowflakes from Michael's ($1.99 for a pack of 12!) onto fishing line and suspended them over our kitchen island where all the food was set up.  Ta-da!  Snowy decor!

Knox's silver train coin bank was the perfect small reference to the Polar Express theme.  I set it on one of my cake pedestals with some evergreen trimmings from our tree underneath.  The snowflakes are just printer paper that I punched my snowflake punch.

I am a tad obsessed with my glass pedestal cloches from Sur la Table and am always looking for a way to use them.  They look great filled with random ornaments at Christmas time.

{FOOD}
I had coffee with caramel sugar swizzle sticks and a yummy spinach, bacon and Swiss cheese quiche.  

In the book The Polar Express, the little boy describes how all the children on the train are enjoying nougat candies and "hot cocoa as thick and rich as melted chocolate."  I knew only the mommies would be enjoying the cocoa so super rich was just fine and I have the most incredible recipe for hot cocoa.  One cup will satisfy your sweet tooth for days, I swear! I posted the recipe for the hot chocolate here.

But what's hot cocoa without marshmallows?  I've always wanted to try making marshmallows and I figured this was the perfect occasion.  It's a little intimidating because of the exacting nature of the boiled sugar part but it came together so easily and the result was AMAZING.  I'm never eating store bought marshmallows ever again!  All the recipes for these items are listed at the end of this post.


The jingle bell is the star of The Polar Express story.  Luckily it's something even a small child can enjoy.  Plus don't you love the sweet sound of jingle bells this time of year?  I threaded some jumbo sized bells onto white ribbon and sent all the babies home with one.

Moms got a coconut cupcake iced with cream cheese frosting with a dusting of "snowy" coconut on top.  I finished each cupcake with the MOST ADORABLE sugar jingle bell from Parker's Flour Patch.  Each cupcake went into a cellophane bag with a cupcake insert that I got from Garnish.  I tied them off with a cute tag (see printables) and a small jingle bell.  Sadly I forgot to snap a picture of this adorable little package before my friends left with them! But either way it was a really fun, low stress get together.  Babies were running around in their pjs while moms enjoyed some yummy treats and celebrated the season. What could be better?!

I created a bunch of signs/flags/favor tags for the party in a festive plaid pattern.  You can download the complete set here or by clicking the image below.


RECIPES:
Spinach & Bacon Quiche (tip:  to keep your quiche crust from getting soggy, blind bake it, then add your filling)

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