I'm lucky to have a lot of nieces and nephews, none live close to me but I get to see most of them on a regular basis when I go to SLC. Three of my nieces are Grinch fiends...they love the movie, The Grinch, (of course they love the book, too) and everything about Who-ville. After years of talking about it, my nieces Gabby, Callie and Gracie decided it was time they had their own Whobilation...they asked if I wanted to help...duh!
Callie truly is Martha May Whovia and Gabby is a lot like Betty Lou Who, so they played their parts brilliantly! Of course, no Whobilation would be complete without the very precious Cindy Lou Who...and little 4 year old Rylee was cast perfectly. Rylee was so excited for the party - kept asking all day if it was time and she could barely contain herself when we finally said it was!
Baby Who-Rhett oversaw everything from the safety of his Who-seat and he was so good - not a peep out of him. Can't say that about Mayor Augustus May Who - although he did kick the party into high hear when he showed up!
Yours truly was crowned Cheermiester, awarded a goblet, lighted necklace, a tinsel-y-pointer-thingy and a beautiful Christmas sweater that I was forced thrilled to put on. My sister Carolynn is trying to hide behind me in the picture - but we see you!
If I look a little tired, and I do, it's because I was! The morning of the party my sister Carolynn and I decided we would dip chocolates...probably not the best decision but time was short. We spent about 5 hours dipping 350 chocolates and then packaging them for gifts. By the time we were finished we were covered in chocolate, and so was every surface in the kitchen. We spent a good bit of time cleaning up, with the clock ticking down to the Whobilation...a nap would have been nice but there wasn't any time for that!
My sister Joni let us trash her kitchen, she does have the perfect space for dipping chocolates...huge counter that we could completely cover with chocolate. Carolynn is a master at packaging and each box was beautifully wrapped with darling tags. I made the apron for my sister Joni several years ago and I used it so I wouldn't be chocolated...when she came home and saw it she thought it was ruined forever...but it washed up beautifully. It was probably the first time it's been used...
By now I'm sure you're wondering what does one do at a Whobilation besides dress up? Well, for starters we dined on green food...
We had everything from Grinch Juice, (it was actually really good - recipe can be found here) to roast-beast - sort of - and tons of sugary things...too many to mention - tons is the correct word as that's what I felt like I had gained by the time I flew home!
We had SO much food! (Only half of what we had is pictured above!) I had to get a picture of my brother-in-law's homemade bread...he's now a breadmaker...Who knew??? The list of what we wanted to make shrunk considerably because of our time constraints - probably a good thing. But our Whobilation wasn't just about dressing up and eating...oh no...we had an actual purpose!
I love parties where there is something to do...standing around eating is boring, and besides, it's what I do all day long anyway...so when Gracie and Gabby were talking about this I asked them what the point was...I mean, besides fun, and I told them we needed to do something. They didn't quite get it - standing around eating is not something they do all day so they were looking forward to that...but when I suggested we paint something, they were on board! I prepped the canvasses before I flew to Salt Lake and took all of the paints, brushes and other supplies with me...my luggage was awarded the "overweight" sticker. I'm just glad they didn't put it on me! Everyone was given a canvas, paint, brush and a stencil of the Grinch's hand to use if they wanted - and we all painted the same picture.
There were plenty of real Grinch's at our party who wanted nothing to do with painting...note to self: don't have a party when everyone's favorite football team is playing on TV. I was so proud of my little Who-Monets...they took their painting very seriously - as they should! Painting the Grinch's hand, creating their own masterpiece...their own family heirloom, well, that's a very serious thing!
Can you tell which painting is little Rylee's? Don't you just love it?? She was NOT going to be told what to paint or what colors to use but she does have the Grinch's hand in there! I love them all so much - we had our very own Grinch Art Gallery. We decided that next year - because this must be an annual event - these paintings need to be on display and hopefully they will all have been properly framed!
The best part of the entire thing was spending time with my family. I SO wish we all lived closer to each other - I love it when I'm with them and miss them when I'm not. We had such a good time and I hated it to end...but alas, all good things do have to end...if not we would have all grown three sizes that day!
Merry Grinchmas and Happy Who Year!
