I'll have to gather some more pictures from some of the other cameras at the party, but we had a blast at our EPIC Christmas Party. We invited boys to come along this time too (normally EPIC is only girls) and it was really fun.
After church we all ate at the Pizza Hut buffet. Thankfully we were able to use their party room and keep the 35 kids/adults all grouped together. Then we headed off on our photo scavenger hunt around town. The teens all dressed in ugly Christmas sweaters or silly Christmas accessories and headed off in different teams to check off all the items on their lists. They had a take photos of everything they did and it ranged from sitting on Santa's lap, to a male team member wearing a red dress, to applying a shaving cream beard, to making up your own Christmas song and recording it. I drove around one group and let's just say I remembered all too quickly how um....fun? that age group is? Ha! Really though, it was a blast.
We all then headed to Kristen's house for some snacks and a white elephant gift exchange. They also wrapped the presents our church sponsored for the Angel Tree ministry. Then most of us headed to a nearby church for their annual Christmas production. Its a narration, choir, soloist, live nativity production that's really cool. Of course my boys didn't make it through most of it so I played with them in the nursery. We ate a few cookies afterwards, took a few of the teens home, and finally made it home that night around 9:30. We had been gone for over 12 hours that day and we were
wiped.
I think we had about 18 teenagers and 4 different couples and their kids for sponsors/helpers. It was so encouraging to see not only the young people bond with one another, but also see how many families are willing to invest in the youth. It was a long day, but so full of fun memories and blessings.
