My amazing celebrate everyday sisters threw Kristian and I the most adorable co-ed baby celebration over the holidays. The Baby It’s Cold Outside themed event was complete with snowflake decor, yummy comfort food and cozy, warm beverages.  But the most touching part of the day was all the family and friends they graciously hosted at Holly and Pete’s home all afternoon.

The event was filled with encouraging hugs and thoughtful toasts that made the entire day feel like our official launch into parenthood. So before I hand things over to Holly and Becky to share the festive party details, I wanted to say thank you to both of them for organizing such a meaningful day for the Pearson family.

The Theme: Becky and I were left scratching our heads when it came to the theme. For a couple of days, the theme was simply “Baby.” I was deep into the Christmas Countdown. I had Christmas decor in all corners of the house. We had 4 Christmas trees this year. FOUR. I was sweating a little bit because the shower was 3 days after Christmas, which was in no way a realistic timeframe to un-decorate for Christmas and then redecorate for a baby shower.

Then I had a moment of clarity. A single moment that took about 97% of the stress of planning away. And I thought.. It’s winter. It’s cold. It’s a BABY shower. BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE! I texted Becky right away. Silently praying she was going to love this idea, and she did. Thank. God. (side note: Guess what? Baby. It WASN’T cold that day. We had an unseasonably warm day which actually worked in our favor! We were able to have a Hot Chocolate bar on the back porch with a popcorn machine!) Next, I needed to start planning decor. I was only going to have to add more wintry things to the decor that was already up. Which was right up my alley.

 I decided to go with lots go white lights, lots of snowflakes, and anything that looked snowy. I made the snow covered jars which wound up looking so pretty when they were wrapped in the lights. The table runner was also made by me just by painting a wooden snowflake and stamping it on. I made a few chalkboard signs (somehow I only got a picture of this one.) This is where everyone put their books that they brought for Baby P. We had four Christmas trees this year. I decided to use one of them as the place where the gifts would be displayed. It was already decorated in gem ornaments that kind of looked like ice, so the only thing I added was the fake snow (which was quilt batting, because guess what- you can’t find fake snow after Christmas apparently) to the bottom of the tree and in the branches. I then added fishing line from the ceiling with white circles cut out to look like it was snowing. SO MANY GIFTS! This was a favorite decoration of Rachel’s. We had a clothesline of white onesies and just the one blue one that was custom-made by her great friend, Jen. Lake Minisink is definitely everyone’s favorite place to be, so this was extremely special and I’m glad we had a great place to display it! I wish I would have gotten pictures of all the decor we had,  but we were just having too much fun 🙂

The Menu: After Holly came up with the perfect theme “Baby, It’s Cold Outside!” and creative and fun decor ideas to match, I started to brainstorm a menu. Besides the theme, I wanted to keep in mind that we needed enough to feed a good-size crowd (between 30-40), and most people would be standing while they ate, so finger foods would be best. I also wanted to provide food that was kid-friendly, since we expected a few people to bring their kids (including me:)).