Christmas Dance

The big girls-choice Christmas Dance at the high school has come and gone. Rebekah invited a boy who she's been good friends with for quite a few years...Austin. In fact, I think, "Mom...can I go hang out at Austin and Jake's (twins) house??" was the first early teen entrance into de-segregation when it came to hanging out on weekends. So Rebekah was really excited about the prospect of a fun weekend with Austin as her date.

The "day activity" was held at our house. Four couples, eight teenagers. First up, after chowing down some pizza (they even had a prayer over the food...how awesome are they??) they took over my kitchen and made gingerbread houses. Creative and impressive, these houses turned out. And over time a little bit of fun competition arose...to the point that when all was done, they insisted on calling a neighbor over to judge which house was best. What do you think?

The log house on the far right won. And after settling all that, they headed downstairs with snacks in hand to watch "Elf."

Christmas Dance is semi-formal, like Homecoming. Which basically means making the rounds of the formal dress shops. This time Rebekah found a dress at the first place we stopped. Two, actually. She could not decide and we sat there for 2 hours going back and forth, taking pictures and sending texts to all her friends for advice, as well as also asking every other customer and employee in the store! Did I mention how much fun it was? Rebekah is teeny, tiny which means that sometimes finding a dress that fits is complicated. But this store was willing to do all sorts of alterations for not only fit but to also make it modest...and we had such a great time looking through and trying on all the fluffy colorful confections.
 
Once again we went shoe shopping the day of the dance. Because heaven help us if we ever actually find a day to shop for a matching pair of shoes ahead of time. We also forgot about the boutonniere until morning of...so we were scrambling a bit. And though we were a little bit rushed for time, when Rebekah walked out the door to go pick up Austin, she looked absolutely stunning.

 Dinner and pictures at another girl's house. Off to the dance. And then games and dessert (in pajamas they had all brought with them) at another house. Rebekah got home a little bit after midnight and then kept me up till 1:30, inviting me to snuggle with her in bed even, detailing the fun evening. I'm so glad she had such a great time!