Christmas Book Club Party!

Our Christmas party started this year with a bang of information right from the get go. So lets see......someone had a run in with some plastic, someone is pregnant & maybe with twins, someone else is going to be a grandma, and sadly someone else' dad had a heart attack the night before and was in ICU. Yes this is the kind of information book club is full of, but don't forget we also discuss the book which was "Gifted Hands" by Ben Carson. I would dare say all that were able to read it seemed to enjoy the book with a few of us thinking he had a bit of an ego. But all in all good life lessons to be learned from this book. Candace hosted and lets just say she has quite the knack for decorating and everything was just lovely. Bless your little heart Candace!

Stacy, Melanie, Liz, Kirsten, & Machelle

Angela, Tandy, and Kathryn

Angela & Kirsten

Candace our host and Cora

Julie, Machelle, and Kathryn

See just lovely...I wish I had taken pictures before dinner so you could see the whole spread

Every year we do a book exchange & it can get pretty competitive but yea! we were so excited this year that Liz stole a book from someone. Sad but true we now have an entire year to wait for our next Christmas party however we did decide to do another book exchange in July. Merry Christmas & Happy Reading!

April's Pick

Here is the book we are reading this month!!

This was Tandy's pick.

"SPARK"

Stacy decided that rather than meeting at her house this month for the book discussion that we should "go out." She picked a new restaurant/lounge in Provo called SPARK. The place was incredible, it was really modern and unique and we all really enjoyed ourselves.
Here is a group picture of everyone that came, we missed Tandy and Kathryn and Emily this time. We had the "loft" to ourselves and it was perfect. After we ordered drinks we discussed the book which everyone really loved and got alot out of.

Here are some of the pictures I took of the appetizers and drinks that we ordered. The food was beautiful and the presentation was fabulous. We were all very impressed with the menu and thought we might be a little bit out of our league.

 

We had a few orders of the "dueling edamame" which was soy beans that were awesome. One bowl was cold and had a Hawaiian lemon salt mixture on it and then there was a bowl of warm ones with bacon and salt on them. You just suck the beans out of the pod and it was something I have never tried before but I loved it. We also had "pommes fries" and they were delicious too. They were rosemary potato fries and there were 2 dips a garlic one and a blue cheese one...both really yummy.

We tried an assortment of drinks...the Shirley Temple was a favorite, along with the Mango Mojito and the Blueberry pop. The Ox Blood was good too but the Hot and Cold was a big disappointment. It sounded really cool, chilled Coke top/warm lime bottom but it didn't taste that good!!

 

 

Now on to the desserts...oh my goodness they were scrumptious!!! We tried the Roasted Pineapple, Warm Chocolate Pudding and the Cream of Hazelnut Soup. They really were all three so good but I think the favorite was the chocolate pudding.

We had so much fun and I think that maybe all the great food had a weird reaction with Julie because she was CRAZY all night!!!

It started out with her ripping up a napkin and being "The Phantom of the Opera." I must have missed something because I have NO IDEA why she did this. She even sang a little bit too, then she was laughing so hard that she started to cry and needed the napkin to wipe her eyes.
Needless to say, we all laughed ourselves silly.

Then a little later she got up and put on a show for us...Candace joined her and they were really having a great time.
We laughed so hard and I was just taking pictures like crazy trying to keep up with them...luckily I got a great one of the "booty slap," that was the most hilarious part of the night!!
Thanks so much ladies for the entertainment, I feel like they should charge a cover for their performances!!
Can't wait for next month...and Julie you better be thinking of ways to entertain us because you are TOO FUNNY!!!

March's Pick

3 cups of tea discussion

We all met for book club last night and discussed 3 cups of tea.  We all agreed that the book was a little to wordy and could have been written better but we also agreed that it was a worth while read and we all learned so much.  We discussed whether we thought that school's in Pakistan and other countries would help with terrorism and if that alone could stop it.  We also discussed the role religion plays in these countries and how do we think that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread eventually in these countries.  Candace told us of a very touching experience she has been going through lately and it gave us all a lot to think about.  Melanie was a great hostess and made a yummy layered oreo cake dessert.  Next month we will meet at Spark in Provo for appetizers and drinks to discuss Stacy's pick.  We all can't wait!

While you're down there...

We had our January Book Club at Borders last night. There were several people that weren't able to make it tonight but we managed to have a great time, especially searching through the "bargain" books. Adorable "pop-up" books for $5 you just can't beat that!! We roamed around looking for new books to purchase but mostly just chatted.
We sat down at the cafe with our steamed milk or hot chocolate and yummy desserts and had a very wonderful conversation.


We had some really inquisitive and thought provoking questions asked by Julie and we heard some "juicy gossip" from Liz (of all people). We had several hilarious stories told by various people, one of which is how I got the title for the post but if you weren't there you missed out!!!
We also shared different parenting tips and I was grateful for Julie's idea about what to do with fighting kids. She said that when her kids were fighting she would make them sit down and write 10 things that they like about each other. I have never thought of that but I hope my kids will get in a big fight soon so I can try it out!!
Melanie also revealed several bargain tips on Amazon and discovered that Walmart sells furniture...who would have guessed that you could buy a couch at Walmart (I should have known, you can get anything at Walmart)!!

The wait is finally over and our next book was revealed.

Can't wait to see everyone next month at Melanie's house to discuss it!! I hope everyone will be there, we missed you all!