Christmas Parties

Our December was full of festivities!  The month began with our stake's Creche Festival.  People bring their nativities to the stake center and set them up for people to see.  There were over 1,000 nativities!  Musical groups such as high school choirs, local musicians, etc. play every half hour to bring in the Christmas Spirit.  I played the harp and helped the primary kids sing.  I bet I'm the only one who got ecstatic thumbs up from the missionaries!  We went to support their missionary choir too.  They were so good!  I think I like being friends with the missionaries because they're like my connection to my brother Mark :)

The next weekend was our ward Christmas party, and I learned how to plan a large craft project.  Rule #1:  Do something simple (I glued popsicle sticks together to make 100 stars).  Rule #2:  Glitter is a bad idea.  I learned that after four of us spent a half our vacuuming the entire church.  But...the star ornaments did turn out really cute.

The next weekend was an Ugly Sweater Party with some of our dental school friends.  I got our sweaters at the DI, but they weren't really that ugly.  However, Scott and I got second place at the newly wed game!  (Sadly, the question that made us lose was "How does he like his steak?"  I've never wanted to spend enough to buy steak, so how should I know?!)

I had an adventure making snowflake cookies to thank the Primary teachers for all their hard work.  They are drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy cane.

Just a couple of days before we left, we made gingerbread houses with some friends from our ward.  We made it from scratch!

Last but not least, we decorated for Christmas!  My fears of not having any decorations were put to rest by some relief society crafts, good friends, and two mothers who helped me out.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my mom and I made a table runner to put on our coffee table.  My friend offered us a garland with colored lights, which I strung on the entertainment center and decorated with ornaments.  However, I soon had a phone call from Mom P. saying that "Just won't do," and that she had put money in our account for a tree.  So...two nights later we decorated our Christmas tree with ornaments I've collected over the years and a few more that we purchased.  Our little apartment ended up looking pretty festive!