For the past few years, we've thrown an after the holidays party and spend weeks planning, cooking and preparing for this fun event. The goal is to try to get all our friends over to our place - and re-celebrate the holidays. We keep up all the holiday decorations (except our Xmas tree - since its needles decided to flake off way too early) and create a festive atmosphere all around our apartment. (Special thanks to Brooke for all the amazing food labels and to Nick for his help setting up!)

For the signature cocktail, we created a fun Rum Punch.

Here's a look at the food spread:

Including some crudites with French Onion dip (I hollowed out a purple cabbage to hold the dip)

Some cheeses, sausages, pita chips and hummus:

We made a delicious ham - and decide to serve them as sliders paired with 3 choices of mustard:

John recreated his X-mas Dinner Trifle in handy parfait-style servings. These were a hit!

(They include layers of ground turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce {jellied of course}, gravy and stuffing.)

I spent most of the week fashioning marzipan mushrooms, holly leaves, berries and a pine cone for cream-filled Yule Log. A shredded coconut floor of "snow" and covering of frosting and powered sugar brought the dessert to life. (check out eHow Video for more Marzipan tutorials)

Deviled eggs completed the spread:

And of course, there was a fully-stocked bar:

Dave and Amy brought honey covered bacon that we dipped into whipped cream. Sounds totally gross, but I swear you have to try it - yummy!

It got pretty crowded in the dining room once the bacon and whipped cream made the rounds. (ah - look how cute everyone is!!)

For the second year in a row, we had a gift exchange and asked everyone to bring their least favorite gifts for a little re-gifting. Items ranged from a Hockey puzzle, action figure and some of the best Inventions of 2008. I ended up choosing #10 from the gift raffle and snagged myself an awesome new gift:

A Snuggie - and yes - its really THAT BIG!

A close-up of the action figure (sans sword) that Doug received - next to the award-winning Gingerbread house.

And...

Here's a few shots of everyone who came out to make this year's party a great success. Can't wait to celebrate again with everyone next year!!

For a little more info on the gift exchange, check out Brooke (aka Miss Cupcake's) new blog, Claremont Road!