24 December 2017

We started a 1000 piece puzzle this week.  Becky thought it would be fun for the kids to work on while they were home on break.

Helen and Gibson attended a drama camp at the high school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The high school drama club held the camp as a fund raiser.  During the camp, the kids divided into 4 groups and made up their own skits about superheroes.  Brandan, Becky and Abe got to see their skits on Wednesday afternoon.  Here is Helen acting the part of a superhero named Phazer.  In her skit, the heroes convinced the villains that it's more fun to be good than bad.

Gibson played the role of a smart pig named Mr. Piggy in his group's skit.  The plot was something about a mad scientist who turned kids into villains.

Here are all the kids taking a bow at the end.  Helen is in the back row, almost in the middle.  Gib is on the far right.  While the kids may not have learned much about acting during the camp, they had fun with their friends and we enjoyed watching their skits at the end.

Abe made Star Wars pancakes for Gibson and himself on Wednesday.  Gibson is eating Yoda.

 Abe is eating Darth Vader in this photo.

 Becky thought it would take all of Christmas break to finish the puzzle, but we finished it in three days.

The kids played lots of music this week.  A few members of our ward live in an apartment building for senior citizens and we offered to come play music for them.  We were surprised to see flyers hanging in the building to advertise our music.  We're usually very casual.

Here's a photo of one side of the room.  We played in the community room at the apartment building and about 25 people came.

The kids did a great job playing songs and we ended with singing carols with the residents.

 We started a second 1000 piece puzzle on Thursday.

Our friend invited us to join her family and a third family to sing Christmas carols at an assisted living home.  We sang several carols and most of the kids played a Christmas song on the keyboard.  Abe, Helen and Gibson played "Joy to the World" together.

We finished the second puzzle in three days, too.  Maybe it's time for bigger puzzles.

This is a photo of Helen preparing her talk on Saturday for church on Christmas Eve.  We love her colorful notes.