Caroling

We went Christmas caroling in Lamplighter tonight.  God directed our steps while Steven Cragg led us in song.  We made a joyful noise to everyone who would listen to us and passed out candy canes along the way.  We ended our evening with cookies and hot chocolate back at the church.

Christmas Party!!!!!

Believe it or not, this was ZG's first ever Christmas party!  We asked the kids if they wanted to have a Christmas party instead of our annual New Year's lock-in and gift exchange and they said, "Nope, but we want to do both!"  Works for us!  So we planned our Christmas party on the same night as STOMP's so that parents with kids in both groups could catch a break, dinner and a movie, or go Christmas shopping.  We also had a special guest.....soon to be ZG'er Sammy Cragg join us for the fun!

We started our evening off with dinner...hot dogs, pulled BBQ pork sandwiches, and sides.

While we ate, we went around the room and talked about our favorite family traditions at Christmastime.  Then we had a little fun and created our own Mad Libs Christmas poem.  Here's how it went:

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through Terrace Palms Community Church,
not a creature was stirring, not even Barney.
The fluffy kittens were tucked, all snug in their Hogwarts,
while visions of smelly plums danced in their heads.
Then up on the Hugh Jackman there arose such a clatter.
I sprang from my Disneyland to see what was the matter.
It was St. Nicholas with his little slow belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of crabby patties.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work
And filled all the evil people, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his foot aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the Japan he rose.
I heard him exclaim as he slept out of sight,
“Lazy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

We had a friendly competition on human gift wrapping then.  That was fun!

Next, we broke the kids into teams and let them pick one person on each team to stuff with newspaper to see who would make the fattest Santa.

In sticking with the Santa theme, the teams built shaving cream beards on their Santa's then and used squirt guns to see which team could "shave" their Santa first.

 

Face the Cookie was next, as baking is tradition in lots of homes at Christmas.  The kids started with a cookie on their foreheads and had to get them into their mouths without using their hands.  The team to get the most cookies into their mouths in 5 minutes won.

We played GaGa ball then, a very unique version of dodge ball. The kids took turns making S'mores around a firepit in the parking lot too.

Gifts were next.  We played Candy Ball first.  We had wrapped a bunch of candy into a ball of Saran Wrap and bubble wrap, taped with packaging tape.  The kids sat in a circle and one-at-a-time tried to unwrap the ball while the person next to them rolled dice.  Once their neighbor rolled a pair, it was their turn to try and unwrap the candy ball while the next person took their turn with the dice.  This was such a huge success.  I see many candy balls in our future!

Our planned gift exchange was next.

Then we chilled and watched Mr. Popper's Penguins.  We ended our night with Linus' explanation of the true meaning of Christmas and then sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

Hanging of the Greens!!!

We had a great time last night decorating our tree in the ZG room, making our very own elf ornaments, enjoying candy canes and cookies, and wrapping gifts and making homemade Christmas cards for our seniors.  Enjoyed hanging out with everyone at the Hanging of the Greens.  We also swapped names for our gift exchange at next week's Christmas party.  That's our next big event!  See you then guys!!