Young Women Christmas Extravaganza

**UPDATE: Hot Chocolate Bar Printables can be found HERE.

**UPDATE: Inn Crowd/Stable Few gift/printables are now available HERE.

We, the YW Presidency, wanted to do something special for the Young Women (12-18 yr old girls that attend church with my family) of our ward for Christmas, so we planned a progressive dinner for the girls which affectionately became known as the Christmas Extravaganza!

I made invites:

We started our evening in the backyard of one of our girls.  I was in charge of the hot chocolate bar.  {Someday when I have a minute, I'll share my printables & more details.}  The girls made yummy mugs of hot chocolate, the Grinch made a visit, & the girls enjoyed a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas around the fire pit.

After our tummies were warm with hot chocolate, we paraded next door to the home of two other girls for dinner, a visit from Santa, & a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Our last stop was the home of a leader where the three wise men read a story to the girls, we enjoyed a variety of desserts, and had a little gift for the girls ... free printable for that to come too.

Raise the Bar: Self-Portrait

I came across a message on Facebook posted by my friend Libby ... she's hosting a photo challenge this year ...  one theme per week.  Maybe I'm too late to join the fun, but I still wanted to try this week's challenge because some of the other photographers had some fun results that inspired me & my cameras have been growing too much dust. Week one is the dreaded self-portrait.  To me, a self-portrait is nothing more than a crap-shoot cause I'm not behind the camera & able to see what's going on.  I fiddled around with my camera for a bit & gave-up because nothing was working how I wanted it to.  Tonight after the kids were in bed, I stuck my camera card into my computer and this one was my favorite:

To check out the results of some other photographers, go to Libby's blog!

Sunshiny Days

Last weekend we had some beautiful weather here!! It was sunny & in the 80's.  Monday was Hubby's birthday & a holiday, so my mom took the kids for a while so that Hubby & I could go on a date.  Bushka & the kids escaped to the splash pad.  The kids had a blast!!

Since the weather was just as nice the next day, Bushka & I took Mr. Turkey to the splash pad again the next afternoon. 

Baby Jada Part 2

I've been a bad sister.  I took photos of Baby Jada back in early September & still haven't given my sister a CD with all the photos, but I'm trying to go through lots of photos & clean stuff out.  TODAY I'm making my sister a CD so I can get that off my to-do list, so here is Baby Jada ... Part 2.

Penguin + Harp

We have a new, rising star at our house.  Penguin ... on the harp!  

In our part of the country, we have fall break ... a week off of school in October cause the weather is so nice here!  It's finally cool enough to go outside, but still quite warm.  We decided to take a road trip to UT for part of fall break to visit my grandparents for a few days.  While we were there, Penguin bugged my aunt for a couple harp lessons and now I have a harp sitting in my living room and harp lessons to attend.  Harp was not my choice, suggestion, or something I would've ever come up with, so this is all Penguin's doings & after 6 or 7 lessons, I'd say she's doing quite well!  We took some quick videos with my phone to send up to my aunt so she could see how Penguin in progressing with her new-found hobby.  Please excuse our out-of-tune harp ... tuning it is not high on my favorite things to do list. :)

The first two pieces are being prepared for the ABRSM Grade 1 exam in May & the last song is the one she performed at the Christmas recital a few weeks ago.

Works of Art

I am trying to de-clutter a bit & with all our great technology, it's easier to save schoolwork & art projects that my kids bring home.  Peacock is always busy creating.  Here is a sampling of her latest works of art.