November 30, 2018
I had this idea a few months back about doing "gingerbread" houses. They would really be made out of graham crackers and frosting instead of gingerbread and icing because I am cheap. I posted it on the Facebook group page to see if anyone was interested. I knew December would get filled up fast so I grabbed the last weekend in November and first weekend in December. I had some people that were interested and posted what they were going to bring. The last time we did this as a group was at Nicole's old house probably in 2014 or so. We made a couple of pizza's for dinner before we started in on our houses.
I told everyone I could host, provide some graham crackers, frosting and some bulk Winco candy. We cleaned up the house and got ready for people to come over. Mom, Lindsay, Justin, Megan, Matt and their two kids came over. Erika invited Zach over and we all made houses. It was funny to watch how everyone built their houses. Meanwhile, Mason and Miles watched some Christmas movies.
Once everyone was done we took pictures of everyone's creations. We didn't get pictures of Megan's houses because they had to leave before we were done. Mason finished his and Megan and Matt tried to help Miles with his unfinished house.
Everyone had fun and they said that they would totally do it again next year. Maybe I created another Christmas tradition?
December 1, 2018
We had the date to our Christmas party all planned out but because Celeste couldn't go on the day we chose we had to change it to the first weekend of December...which came really fast since Friendsgiving at Megan and Matt's house was not that long ago. We all adjusted. Ben and I grabbed our White Elephant gifts and prepared my dish, steamed green beans with bacon bits on them. Ben went to his fire house company party before hand. I got everything ready and he was going to meet us there. Erika and Zach also came to the party and rode with me. I told them if they wanted to leave early they could take the Escape home and I would ride with Ben.
When we got to Nicole's house, we put our presents under the tree and reheated my green beans. We waited until everyone got there and then we played some minute to win it games. That included stacking cups, marshmallow and spoon relay, a vegetable relay with either a potato or an onion between your legs, throwing cotton balls at ping pong balls and wrapping a present with a buddy with one of your hands behind your back. I won some of them and it was a hilarious good time.
We decided to eat some food now that Ben was there. We had ham and scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, a few dips, a cheese ball, cocktail weenies, mulled wine, spiced cider and cranberry bliss bars. It was quite the spread of food...and delicious too.
After we ate, we cleaned up our mess and everyone got ready for Christmas Jeopardy. This year Megan was in charge of the categories and questions. She said it was one of the hardest things she's ever put together. Every year we try to not duplicate questions. We try to also separate Nicole and Celeste so they are on different teams because together they would be deadly. It ended up being lop sided and no one did very well on final jeopardy. Those questions are really hard.
We moved ourselves into the living room for the White Elephant gift exchange. There were some really funny gifts and a few people switched gifts. I ended up with an awkward adult present that probably will never be taken out of its bag again. Unfortunately, some people had to leave because it was getting late for some of the kids and Erika and Zach decided to take the Escape home. We cleaned up our present mess and made some room at the table for some Christmas Cards Against Humanity. We had some memorable combinations just as we always do. Around 11 we all decided it was time to head on home.
We thanked Nicole for hosting once again and we went to grab our stuff and Ben ran into her tree and broke one of her ornaments. I yelled out, "this is why I can't bring you anywhere!" Ben apologized and swept up the mess for her. Ben now owes Nicole a Christmas ornament.
We got home, unloaded the stuff and got in some showers. Ben had to work the next day.
I get to put together Christmas Jeopardy this next year. I hope to find some memorable categories and questions.
December 2, 2018
The next day we were right back at Nicole's house for our December paint day. The only people that could come were me, Nicole, Lindsay and Sarah. We had chosen the Fa La Llama painting. We had never done animals or faces for that matter. This was going to be a challenge. The snacks we all brought helped.
We followed the tutorial. Sarah started to get frustrated because her llama face, especially the eyes, was not looking right. She eventually got so fed up with it she cleaned her stuff, put it all away and headed home. We found out later she wasn't feeling all that well and stuff was happening at home. We continued on. Our llama faces were looking pretty weird. Nicole kept reminding us that it will look bad before it looks good. Just trust it.
We kept putting layers on our llamas. They still looked weird. We put warm colors and cold colors over the canvas to try and get it to look like a llama face. I had trouble with its nose and mouth. I kept at it until it started to eventually look okay. Lindsay's started too look alien like and Nicole's had a round face and fluffy hair. We put the finishing touches on our fa la llamas and signed and dated our masterpieces.
We helped Nicole clean up and then took our group shot of our Fa La Llamas. I thought they turned out pretty well considering none of us really had any experience with faces or animals for that matter.
Our next paint day would be in January and we will be doing some sort of landscape. We would have to vote on it when the time came.
Next Adventure: Leavenworth Weekend
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