Southern Living Christmas Cookbook Party

One year I sent home a letter requesting information about what the parents would send for our Christmas party at school. Not one student brought one back. So I took my Southern Living Cookbook to school and passed it around. These were second graders. I told them to pick something they thought would be good at our party but be sure not to pick out something with alcohol. They put sticky notes on the pages. I went through the book looking at the sticky notes with them. They told me which recipes they wanted. I bought the ingredients and took them to school. I told them I needed their parents to either bake things or be in charge of the groups putting the recipes together and decorating them. We spent all that morning working on punch, cupcakes, cookies, and sandwiches. When it was time for our party and we had arranged everything, putting out our decorated placemats, etc., a bunch of parents showed up to enjoy our "party." They had dressed up and acted like I had invited them to the party instead of asking for them to send party food in. I hurriedly told the kids to claim their parents, put chairs next to their desks, and serve their "guests." It was the strangest school Christmas party I ever had. Looking at the Southern Living Christmas Cookbook with stuck-together pages reminded me of that year.