Keep Calm and Drink Cocoa

For Stretch's birthday, I wanted to keep things relatively simple. I had the baby shower that morning and wanted to just be able to throw something together that wouldn't require a lot of effort on my part.

I  liked the idea of a hot chocolate party so we went with that.

We just used basic Swiss Miss hot chocolate. I heated the water in my teakettle so that there was enough water for everyone at once rather than heating individual mugs in the microwave. I had several stir-in and topping options available:
For stirring in:
Chopped Butterfingers
Chopped Heath bars
Mini marshmallows
Mini m&ms

Candy Cane Hershey's kisses
Peppermint sticks
For topping:
Whipped cream
Chocolate Syrup
Sprinkles
Chopped Oreos
For dunking:
Glazed donut muffins
Chocolate Hazlenut Creme Filled Pirouettes

Toppings and stir-ins in mason jars.

I had my cocoa with Heath bars, whipped cream and sprinkles. Yum.

I was just going to have the hot chocolate and popcorn for refreshments, but my husband pointed out that these are thirteen year old boys and that because of the time of the party some of them may not have eaten, so we ended up getting several pizzas and a few 2 liters of soda too.

I was kind of happy to have an excuse to use my recently purchased striped paper straws for the cold beverages. Silly? Maybe. But they are so cute and festive. They are not good for hot chocolate though as one boy found out after he tried to stir his cocoa and the straw turned into a limp, soggy mess.

I didn't plan any party games or anything formal like that. I figured the boys were old enough to just hang out. They didn't need to be entertained. We played Apples to Apples and then watched Elf.

I didn't think to take a formal group picture until one of the boys had already left. :/

At least one of the boys told me that his hot chocolate was "really good" so I consider the party a success.

I like my son's friends. They are polite, well-behaved boys that are a little on the quiet side, but there was a lot of talking and laughter and it made me really happy to see them all enjoying themselves.

Maybe this teenager thing won't be so bad.

One can always hope, right?