December Christmas Party!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This year our annual Christmas Dinner Party was held at Tandy's. What a beautiful home and the perfect setting for our yummy dinner and book exchange.

The beautiful table is set...

The preparations are underway...

Bring on the food!!!

Because the chatter does matter! Love you ladies!

We had an adorable reenactment of Julie and Candace's shopping trip and made a note of Candace's "luck" while shopping... but she was definitely missed for the party.

The book exchange was very fun. I hope everyone got what they wanted and enjoyed the "stealing" and fighting over the books. Definitely a favorite tradition of Chatter Matters.

We are planning our field trip to Barnes and Noble in January for hot chocolate and treats and hours of book browsing. Not quite sure on the time, but we'll let you know!

Merry Christmas to all you amazing women! You are all truly examples of love, charity and friendship. I can't imagine our book club without every single one of you.

Love you all!

November's pick - Melanie

I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I totally forgot to do the November post. So here goes...

This month we read the biography of our beloved prophet

President Thomas S. Monson

Melanie hosted a wonderful book club, as usual. We had a pop quiz on said prophet and for those of us who may not have finished (or even started) had quite a surprise and stressed out a little like we were in 10th grade history again. But were able to learn a lot of fun facts.

We had a great discussion. There was story after story shared of people's favorite President Monson moments. He is an amazing man and truly inspired. What a beautiful tribute to the Lord's chosen.

Melanie made yummy appetizers, treats and even served a delicious hot chocolate bar. With 7 oz of perfectly heated water, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, marshmallows, and a peppermint stick, the night was complete!

Thanks Mel!!!

Next month: Tandy

Hard Times and Holy Places

by: Kristin Warner Belcher

We're excited to have a beautiful story about Christ to start off our Christmas season!

Hopefully everyone got their food assignments for the Christmas dinner at Tandy's and remember to bring a wrapped book for the book exchange!!!

Happy Christmas to all!!!

Liz's Pick - October

Liz picked "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. And wow, for a book that that nobody seemed to like, did this book have a lot to discuss. We all giggled as Liz explained last month she didn't like to read about s*x in books. Well did this book have a lot of s*x (he he he). We loved getting an email with her apologies and how this book has troubled her soul, oh sweet sweet Liz, we love you!

Comments:

Liz did have a great discovery. She was trying to find out what she could learn from this book and having read other books by Mr. Ishiguro, she knows he writes novels to make you think. Well, most people questioned "why don't these people just leave the boarding school and not blindly accept their fate?" So Liz's question was, "What are the things in our lives we just do without questioning why we do them? Why do we just accept the standard path in life and not just do what we want?" Good point Liz!!!

Cora commented, why do we go through life doing all the typical things? School, college, marriage, kids? Why is that the norm and the guys who decide to hike their lives through Alaska are considered weird? Interesting...

Candace: "I just felt like from the first page, this book sucked out my soul" (Love you Candace)

Ok, so onto the highlight of the night! Liz broke out Just Dance on the Wii and oh, how we got our groove on!!!

Liz and Melanie got us started! Go Girls!!!

Julie and Candace danced their hearts out!

Stacy and Melanie got their cow-girl on with Cotton Eye Joe!

Don't you just love they're all out of focus cause we were movin'!

We also got to snuggle with Liz's twins! They're so sweet!

Well next Month, Melanie picked the biography of President Thomas S. Monson.

Great pick Mel!!!

Angela's Pick - September

For September, we read "The Heretic's Daughter" by Kathleen Kent. What a great read! We were all excited to read a story set during the Salem Witch Trials and had a great discussion. Most every body loved the writing style by Kathleen Kent and the narration given by the daughter of an accused witch. There were mixed reviews about some of the content but we all enjoyed reading about such an interesting time in American history.

Comments:

Julie thought the writing style was like "The Book Thief" and we discussed the descriptive comparisons the author used.

Cora made an interesting point about the scary things people do out of fear and all the crazy things that have happened throughout history. Very good observation and very true.

We enjoyed yummy pie and talked late into the night at Angela's. We had a good time and missed all that couldn't attend. Thanks Ang!!!

Next Month: Liz picked "Never Let Me Go"

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Cora's Pick - August

"Driven" by Larry H. Miller

For August, Cora picked Larry Miller's autobiography. It was surprising for most people to learn so much about his personal life. He's been such a part of Utah's history, with the Jazz, car dealerships, Jordan Commons, Trax, and little did we all know where he came from. Everyone seemed so inspired by how driven he was throughout his life and the sad childhood he grew up from.

Comments:

Stacy loved when he admitted he wasn't the best husband or father and she totally appreciated that he owned up to that.

Machelle loved the picture at the end of the book with Larry's wife laying next to him and you could just tell how much she loved him.

Cora had a beautiful table spread with a delicious chocolate cake and a yummy fruit drink served in tall stemmed glasses. It was beautiful and such a fun night of catching up and sharing. We had a few people not in attendance and we totally missed you! Candace shared what has been going on with our beloved "fresh and fancy"Julie and we have to say we hope you get feeling better soon and our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with you.

Next month: Angela chose "The Heretic's Daughter" by Kathleen Kent. It got "ooes" and "awes" as Angela explained it is set during the Salem Witch Trials. Can't wait to read it!!

Kirsten's Pick - July

"Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay.

Everyone seemed to enjoy this book. We had a great discussion on a lot of World War II stories. Kathryn and Machelle told stories from their times in Europe. Kathryn described the concentration camp memorial and the feelings and emotions she felt while visiting.

This book was a sad and emotional story, but a great tribute to those families affected by the Vel' d-Hiv round up in Paris in 1942. We were all amazed at what men can do to other people and how thankful we are to live where we do.

Machelle's Pick

Drum roll please..................

Julie's Pick

We had a great night at Julie's discussing this book. This was one of those nights where we really spent the majority of the night chattering about every aspect of this book. We decided the book started a little slow but grew really intense especially near the very end. Julie hadn't read the book but was relieved that we all seemed to enjoy it. There were a couple of risque bits in it but it was really written well. Julie served us up turtle, Oreo, or key lime pie and it was delicious! Updates were Liz had her twins & now Cindi is on bed rest with her twins and Kathryn's son is going on an LDS mission. We missed Liz, Kristen and Melanie. Thanks Julie for a fun night as usual!

Kathryn's Pick

This book is our pick for the month. This is different than anything we have ever read & should make for some great conversation. No update from last months book club since I wasn't there to update.

Stacy's Pick

This is our pick for the month & we will meet in March to discuss it.

And a summary for last months book. Oh my where was my camera for this book club because we had the most luscious desserts Candace, Julie, and Angela. Cindi hosted and bought the most divine cupcakes from a bakery with 6 different flavors to choose from. We all ended up splitting them so we could taste at least two. You know that we had great beverages when the Diet Coke is still sitting on the counter unopened.....yes I said unopened! Cindi had purchased Italian Soda's from Target that were such fun flavors. We all had a hard time talking about "The Help" because we couldn't stop talking about the food.

Everyone really enjoyed the help and our conversation covered every nook and cranny of racism. It was great to be with a group of women who aren't racist. We all thought it was terrible how long racism went on and still goes on in parts of our country. This book was very entertaining and an eye opener for all.

To top off our night we watched the men's figure skating competition in the Olympics. If you haven't ever watched the Olympics with a group of women you should try it as it gets very hilarious and entertaining. We decided we don't like "pelvis pumping" or the "licking" of their palms in men's figure skating, however we did laugh pretty hard.

January's Pick

Cindi picked this lovely book for the month and everyone seemed most excited to read it! This month we did our annual trip to Barnes & Noble where we sipped hot cocoa, chattered, and searched for books to read. We now have two members of our book club expecting twins WoW!!!