Last weekend I headed up to Manassas for the annual White Elephant Gift Exchange. Of course, I had to get there early and eat at Cafe Rio, where a bunch of my friends managed to join me.
 |
| Me with Tracy and Jacqui and being wonderfully photobombed by Lenee and Christina |
This year my friend Emma was hosting the party, and she took it up several notches. She made white elephant sugar cookies for the refreshments (in addition to a bunch of other yummy things!) and then gave out little white chocolates that were elephants, too. Who thinks of stuff like that???
I managed to open the VERY BEST PRESENT (although Andrea Kunz promptly stole it from me, so I didn't get to keep it):
 |
| This party has a tradition of passing around a poster of Anitra (the party's founder) that says I Believe In You. This year, Emma made throw pillows of Anitra with her catch phrase and also one of her and her husband that says Sweet Dreams. I was in hysterics! |
 |
| There was also a box of doughnuts with Jackie proclaiming, "I Do Nut Believe In You!" I didn't manage to win that either. But I probably didn't need the doughnuts anyway. |
 |
| Great party, Emma!!! |
 |
| Slightly smaller party this year, but still so much fun! |
I didn't stick around as long as I normally would have because I wanted to visit my friend Vangie who wasn't able to make it to the party. Luckily for me, her house is on the way home, so I popped over and we had a nice chat before I started yawning and figured I'd better start for home before I got too tired!
Craig, meanwhile, had taken all the kids to Charlottesville's Grand Illumination:
 |
| They all got light-up pins and candy canes-- a magical night, indeed! |
 |
| "Spruce Springsteen" looks very festive and... shrub-like? |
 |
| This is what happens when you let your teenager take pics! |
 |
| And of course, they finished with ice cream at Chaps. I love how you can see Craig in the mirror! |
The next day we didn't have much going on (HALLELUJAH!!!), so it gave us time to play with pets:
 |
| Here's Ryder delicately luring Scooter back to his cage (after Kendra let Scooter out two minutes before her piano lesson!) |
 |
| Kendra loves to carry Oreo around |
And Craig could finally make his beloved Spritz cookies!
Also, Ryder and Bentley now know how to make ramen AND eggs for themselves! I guess they're all set for college now! My work is finished!
Sunday was super busy. I got to leave church early and attend the Staunton and Waynesboro relief societies. Both were great and, as always, I am LOVING getting to meet more of the members in the area! The teacher in one ward I think is meant to be my new best friend. I was worried about leaving the kids sitting all alone, so I'd arranged for our friend Juneanne (or as she lets the kids call her, Junebug!) to sit with them.
And then that night was the stake Joy to the World concert, where I got to hear Sarah sing two solos, and of course enjoy all the other wonderful music, as well. Craig's school choir sang at it, too, so he got to get points for being a good administrator! Woot! Unfortunately, by the time that was over, there was no way my kids were going to be able to sit still for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Some day we'll get there.
Yay for Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment