Hang out @ the Housers

We survived enjoyed our first youth hang out at our house yesterday evening.  One of our desires is to have an open home, both for youth and for anyone really.  A home that is welcoming and a home where people feel loved, welcomed, and cared for.  We were really excited to host what we hope will be the first of many youth gatherings in our home.

Since many of the youth have not been gathering and there has not been many formal youth-focused times in the past year and since Steve is still fairly new, we weren't sure how many would come but we ended up having a pretty good sized turn out, which was fun. 

I, for one, was glad because as part of the evening we had planned to decorate cookie and, well, I'd been baking for some time and really did not want to be left with dozens and dozens of cookies to eat after the dozens I'd already "taste tested." 

One tradition I missed this year was the annual cookie decorating contest at the VanAlstine's in Cambridge.  So, we brought the tradition over to Korea (Thanks, Shari!), complete with surprise judges and all.  I baked 4 batches of sugar cookies and one batch of chocolate cut out cookies and we went to town....I think because of the "contest" aspect, even the guys got pretty into it, especially when they heard there would be 3 surprise judges and a prize for "funniest" and "nicest" cookie.

Caleb even got into it. Literally. 

 And yes, he is wearing purple pants.  He is a Viking hard core, what would you expect? The kid bleeds purple.  Two words:  Daddy's Boy.

A sampling of the art that came out of the evening:

We also enjoyed a close (and rather hilarious) game of pictionary....

And we ended up the evening with our "suprise" judges...Thanks, guys!

Or more accurately, Steve ended the evenening with a huge mess to clean up! =)



Good thing I did all the baking, so I got out of the cleaning part....I think it was well worth it, though!  And really, frosting isn't that hard to clean, right?