Charlie Brown Party

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the idea of getting you all caught up to speed on the last 3 days festivities. Blogging about it seems more overwhelming than living it out all over again, especially since I am scrambling to try to get everything ready for our Primary classes for the new year, and trying to work a little bit. If I work 50 hours (not in one week, just total) on that project that I told you I didn't like, then I get paid for the 28 hours of training. So I have been squeezing a few hours in here and there and still trying to maintain my sanity this Christmas week. In an attempt to reduce my current state of stress, I will just catch you up in baby steps.

First, let's go back to the 23rd.

Around lunch time I suggested to Alyssa that we should have A Charlie Brown Christmas party that night. Since Alyssa is my future party planner she said she had an idea and had a game made 15 minutes later. Pin the star on the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Then we went to Hobby Lobby to find some cards. Alyssa begged me for a pink Christmas tree. I laughed and reminded her of the pink tree that Lucy wants in the movie. She had to have it. I figured it would make a good visual aid for our party so I told her she could have it as her gift from Grandma Teddie (whose check was the only one we had not yet spent). We got in line and Alex started asking if he could go back and pick a tree too. I told him they were pink. He said they might have something else that he could have for his gift from Teddie. We got out of line, and yes people were laughing aloud at me, and went back to look. Sure enough we found another phony baloney Lucy style Christmas tree, in red. You should have seen my two goofballs holding hands and carrying their trees through the Hobby Lobby parking lot. They came home and Alex took his tree on a tour of the house. Alyssa sat and hugged hers and told it how much she loved it. Seriously, I don't make this stuff up. Then they decorated the trees with the ornaments that they have collected over the years from teachers. Thanks Grandma Teddie. I don't know if that is what you had in mind, but the trees were a huge hit.

On to the party. We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, which may be my favorite Christmas movie. It is nice and short so I can actually stand to sit through the whole thing and the message is just perfect. After we watched we talked about the parts of Christmas that are important. (hint: not pink trees)

We played Alyssa'a game. Alyssa won first place, Alex won third but asked if he could wear my 2nd place ribbon for the picture, and Chloe just likes to say cheese.

Then we made Christmas cards. I haven't sent cards the past 2 years because I feel like I drive everyone nuts with the blog. There can't possibly be any words or pictures left for a card. We talked about how Charlie Brown wanted a card to bring him cheer in the beginning of the movie. We talked about who we could write to that would appreciate hearing from us. We picked my Grandma King and Seth's grandparents since I know they would love to hear from the kids, and my grandma doesn't have a computer so she is not already sick of us.

Then we strung popcorn for our tree like Charlie Brown has on his tree.

And shoveled a bit of it in to our mouths

Next year I will do this activity in the beginning of December so we can get cards out on time. I will also have my family decide on a Charlie Brown project we can do to help us focus on the real meaning of Christmas. And I will not string popcorn again until the kids are older. Much more tedious than we'd hoped it would be. This was all we got before we gave up.

This year was our CBC party test run and it is a keeper, but I will take more than 7 minutes to plan it next year so that it is a more memorable tradition for our family.

Alright, one down...next up: Christmas Eve.