Is There A Man in the House???

Yep, that would be 15 of them. Or at least 15 little men. The boys hosted their Christmas Party with all their church buddies. We have lived here for three years and we had a showing of boys from 4 previous/different wards even though none of us have ever moved.

For dinner the boys wanted appetizers and listed off like 15 things they wanted me to make. I scaled that down to 1 of each of their favorite appetizers (deviled eggs, cocktail sausages in barbecue sauce, and chips and dip) with pizza. I think those boys had hollow legs or something because they ate through 5 large pizzas and 4packs of breadsticks!

About an hour after they ate dinner there were like 5 cocktail sausages left that hadn't had toothpicks stuck through them. So I stuck toothpicks in them, turned around to put a glass in the sink, and turned back and the plate was completely empty. I did love seeing them enjoy the food! And since it's Christmas I even served soda. Usually for their boys' nights it's just plain water, I have to protect my carpets:-) But they did so great that I think next time I would even be brave enough to give them fruit punch.




The Boys Played Video Games


Air Hockey


Wrestled


And Played Outside. Ken stayed outside most of the time making sure the boys stayed reasonably safe while they chased and hunted each other in the dark and through our mini forest. Ummm, maybe we should clean up the pick axe before we invite a bunch of kids over, what do you think???? He did set-up his big work lights so they could jump on the tramp. Ken was a really good sport because at 8am the morning of the party he had a cavity removed from his tooth and was in a bit of pain. But he smiled through it and stayed out in the cold for about 2 hours as the boys went wild. None of the boys stayed outside that long, they just seemed to take shifts of coming in and out so he had a steady stream to watch.


One funny story that Ken told me was how, they had two teams playing against each other. Adam, one of the older boys got Gabe (the smallest and youngest boy) who was on his team to be a secret agent. So Gabe made a huge fuss about how he didn't want to be on Adam's team anymore and wanted to be on the other sides. Caleb (the leader of the other team) was more then happy to have Gabe join their side. And then at the end of the game when Caleb's team thought they had totally won. Adam ordered Gabe to reveal his real loyalties. It was all very dramatic and interesting to see the power plays at work between the boys. Especially because it was dramatic, but also done in good humor and the boys were having a ton of fun.


Rose thought she was just one of the guys and ran around happily. She stayed outside with Ken for a large portion of it. So did Ginger until her hands got too cold so I made her come in. She was not happy at all about that:-(

I handled the food. Which mainly meant constantly replenishing the food and helping them with hot cocoa. We, of course, had peppermint hot chocolate with whipped cream. YUMMY! I also got to visit with one of the mom's who is really neat and funny. And set-up for the kids to make chocolate dipped pretzels.



My sister and her family arrived right after the end of the party. She stayed two nights this weekend. My sister and I had fun going to Macy's and getting awesome deals on clothes. The kids had a blast staying up until at least midnight each night as they camped out and watched Christmas movies in the family room.
Then last night we had a family over for dessert and to watch the Christmas Broadcast. Did anyone else have the first 10 minutes dubbed over in Spanish???

It was a fun weekend, exhausting, but really really fun! I would do it all over again even though Ken and I just crashed into out bed on Sunday night. It's almost a relief to be back to the regular work week and take a break from the partying.