...... preparing the tree and decorating it, putting the room decorations up which were making paperchains and decorating their christmas stockings which us leaders would fill with little presents, chocolate and sweets later on when they were in bed! Our actual guider in charge hoped for 10 pm but we all laughed at her suggestion and it was more like 11.30 pm before the last one dropped off!
Saturday was Christmas Day,
...... so after a hearty breakfast and tidying up, there was a treasure hunt around the house and gardens and as cooks, we had been primed that there would be someone calling in at the kitchen to ask for a clue ... then it was hot drinks and christmas stockings given out. The girls had work books with a diary challenge and puzzles to fill in. Some of the girls were using the residential weekend as a new experience for their Baden Powell Award so they were reminded that they needed to fill the books in and keep as their evidence!
They also had a felt diecut gingerbread man to put together with blanket or overhand stitch, fill his tummy with hearts and pad him lightly to become a tree decoration. Slightly ambitious project when so many of them were unable to thread a needle and keep the thread on the needle unknotted! Here's one that needed help ...
Lunch later and then it was the Gingerbread Challenge. The real one that is. One of the older guides had made some gingerbread dough in the morning. It was divided between the three groups and they were given the instructions with templates to make a house, get it cooked it the kitchen and then later on they were to be glued and decorated!
It was a work of art trying to cut the templates out and then get them cooked in between making christmas dinner - luckily we had 2 commericalised ovens in the Centre we were staying at. One oven was given over to the cooking and timing of the various templates of dough, 2 x wall sides, front of house, back of house and roof, etc for each three groups. Eventually the 2nd oven was free and we were using that one too ... the dough all had to cooked on the same shelf at the same temperature so it took us a good 2-3 hours to get everything cooked plus the dinner too.
Eventually the dough was done much to our relief and we could concentrate on getting the dinner out and served ...
Sunday - Boxing Day
Most of the morning was spent in putting the Gingerbread Houses together. Three were made and they all stayed upright long enough for photographs to be taken and then apparently two of them fell .... But here is the one that managed to stay upstanding to the end!
and then all too soon, it was time to pack up and go home.
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