Youth Fun in December

We started off  a December full of wonderful youth activities with a trip to the DC temple!

Our service babysitting night is becoming a yearly tradition. We offer to watch the kids in the ward for an hour and half so parents can go on dates, do some Christmas shopping, or just have a little time on their own. Our young women do a great job making sure the little ones have fun!

Not sure what they're doing here but everyone is smiling so it must have been good.

Playing Santa's sleigh which is always a hit!

Contortionists!

I've always been impressed with Savannah's ability to do this with her eyes.

I love this picture...he sure does adore Savannah!

We made wise use of the chalkboard...

and selfies are always a good way to use up time.

And of course there was a lot of running around, playing ball,

dragging kids around,

and playing brilliant games like dead fish. All in all, it was a fabulous night with the primary kids.

Christmas party at my house! We started off with some games...

a cocoa bar...

and a white elephant gift exchange.

Beforehand we had explained the whole "white elephant" concept to the girls, hoping to get their creative juices flowing. Some came up with some great ones!

And then there are those who always think it just means gift exchange. Oh, well...we tried.

Enjoying our crazy gifts and lots of laughs.

To finish off the night, we headed into the kitchen to decorate sugar cookies and have more hot chocolate.

Every year the young men and young women go caroling but this year we decided to shake things up and take the youth ice skating at an outdoor rink instead. We had a blast!

We found the perfect photo op spot!

Xander got very into his skating, trying out all kinds of moves!

Finally got a picture of my guy out there.

Sav skating with her dad.

One final pose!

Me and my Xander!

We finished off the activity with some donuts and extremely hot hot cocoa!