December--Part 1

Christmas is almost here, and so much is going on in our lives.  

Here is a re-cap:

Sunday, Dec. 4th we made homemade ornaments out of salt dough.  (Rusty had left over dough from his Primary lesson.)

 Ben loves play dough so he thought this was a blast.

 We let them dry overnight & then got ready to paint them (& other plaster-of-paris ornaments I bought).

 I think Ben had just as much fun painting his plate!

 Callum painting his ornaments.

 We had great intentions of sending a few to Ethan, but they never got into his package we sent (sorry, Ethan!)  I guess we'll have some for him for next year!

 I even jumped in & painted a couple.  I usually don't care too much for painting little things, because I don't have a very steady hand at painting fine details (faces, etc.)  But I had a lot of fun--plus I needed the practice because I helped the girls paint ornaments at Activity Days later in the week (Thursday).

 Benjamin went over to Callum & helped him "paint"--his plate, that is!

 Here's a dark picture of Zane painting his ornament.

 Nice, Zane!

 Rusty painting his ornament (I couldn't get rid of the red-eye!)  During the week, I baked a lot of cookies.  I needed cookies for the teachers on Sunday, and I wanted some to send to Ethan, so I made ginger snaps & applesauce cookies.

 Thursday after school, I helped the older girls in Primary paint ornaments for cheer baskets.  Their leader was out of town, so me & another lady helped them.  I took all my paints for them to use.  Then we cleaned up, I came home & got ready to go to the school faculty dinner/party.  I took some of the cookies I made earlier in the week.

 Friday, the 9th of December, Emmalee & Callum were able to make gingerbread houses  at the school.

 They had a lot of fun--and I had to take a picture before they ate all the candy off the houses!

 Callum looks like he isn't too excited--but he kept blinking or closing his eyes.  I took 10 or more pictures and this is the only one with his eyes opened.

 He finally said he didn't care if he had his eyes opened or closed--he wanted to eat his candy!

Rusty took Zane to town to get basketball shoes. I took the kids to town on Friday to get their school secret-Santa gifts & finish some shopping.  

 We didn't get home until almost 7, and still needed to get the cookies decorated for the Primary teachers.  Thankfully, Brienna "rescued" me (since she is a pro at cookie/cake decorating!) & frosted all the cookies for me.

Sunday, Dec. 11th, was the day we introduced the 2012 Primary theme to the teachers.  We had the young women come to Primary & do sharing time & singing time while we presented the new theme to the teachers.  The theme is Choose the Right, so we had cookies & milk for the treat.  The teachers got their new manuals & a gift (I didn't take a picture of the gift--I'll have to do that some time).  

Then Monday, I made (more) sugar cookies & we cut them out & baked them for FHE.  I remember taking pictures of the kids cutting them out, but I cannot find them!  (I even went through all the camera memory cards I can find!)