My ornament exchange wrap-up

Remember I promised to tell you about the ornament exchange?  Bet ya thought I'd forgotten, eh?   Nah.  I just came down with a nasty cold, which went into my chest, and turned into bronchitis... yada yada yada...  But I'm much better now and can sit down and funnel through the pics.     I also promised to tell you how I do my ornament exchange too, right?  Well, here's the back of the invitation which explains to the guest what they need to do...

( I "think" if you click on that it'll enlarge for ya)  The "brown bag" part is the fun part!  When they RSVP, I give them a brown (kraft) gift bag.  This is for their brown bag lunch...with a catch!   They must DECORATE the bag!   And the bag they came with is NOT the bag they get.   As with the ornaments, they are to put a tag on it with the "From" filled in, but leaving the "To" blank.   As they arrive, the "to" is filled in with a number, and that corresponding number goes into a basket.  We draw numbers to see who gets what lunch.   Everyone votes on the lunch bags, and while they're eating I (actually this year it was my sister and a cousin!) tally up the votes. 

As they come in I take their picture with their bag (I tried to get everyone, but missed some folks!)

You might notice there is someone in the pics twice,  that's because she painted both sides of her bag.  When someone said "Karen, I didn't know you painted".  She said that she didn't either but had just picked it up recently.  Wow!  Pretty good, eh?

All the "brown bags" are placed on the counter with the other snacks and sweets I had prepared for them.

after the votes had been turned in (I use lots of index cards at my party! LOL) and they have chosen their number, they go pick up their respective lunch bag and "chow down".

Oh, the ornaments are all wrapped and on the coffee table.  We do the ornament exchange "chinese exchange" or whatever you call it.   Everyone gets a number (yet some more index cards used! LOL) and you can take someone else's away, or chose yours off the table.   (I took my sister's away from her!!!)

(I don't know what was going on here, obviously they weren't paying attention to me! LOL) There was another group standing off to the side and it must've been interesting!

I also read a "pass the present" story, where you're supposed to pass the present to the left or to the right...or across..  whatever direction is read in the story.  It's funny to see how confused we can all get.

And the winners of the decorated lunch bags are announced.  We had first, second and third place.

And the grand finale is when I give them all their favors...and guess what?!?  This year, I FORGOT to pass them out!   So there's a big wicker basket underneath the Friendship Tree with 19 wrapped favors!  LOL

Guess I'll be running errands for some time!

Hope you enjoyed the ornament exchange wrap-up!  I love hosting it each year.  I tried having it at night one year and it just wasn't the same.   I'm not sure if I'll switch it up in the future or not.  I guess it's a "to be continued" . 

I'm linking up to Entertain Exchange party!