Wishing You Holiday Joy!

The weather is chilly and the nights are long so it must be time to celebrate the winter holidays. We have had several celebrations that have put us all in the Christmas spirit. Reenie Davis Hale, came in at the beginning of December and brought us holiday decorations including the beautiful tree I put at the end for this email. Reenie provides this service as a business but donates to us every year - thanks Reenie!

Capable Kids and Families celebrated a Family Fun Day, we celebrated the holidays with foster parents and their children on Friday, and yesterday was our Young Parents Holiday Party! We even got to celebrate a new licensed childcare provider who brought us a big plate of delicious holiday cookies! I hope your holidays are filled with goodness and all of your favorite people! 

CKF Family Fun Day!

Last week Capable Kids and Families (CKF) celebrated a Holiday Family Fun Day! The room looked so festive and winter-like. CKF staff went all out with super decorations that included snowflake designs on the floor (made from white and blue tape) and snowflakes dangling from the ceiling! Food and games added to the holiday theme as did the family members who joined in the fun!

There were crafts and activity stations which included a mitten match game, gingerbread people, snow scenes, and more! I loved looking at the pictures of the families having a great time sharing and having fun. CKF always seems to come up with a fun messy project and this day was no exception. Have you ever heard of finger-paint applesauce? I have never participated but the little guy pictured at right seemed to really enjoy both the painting and the taste!

Also featured at the Family Fun Day was a new invention I knew nothing about - it is called "instant snow." Apparently by adding water to this substance snow is created - CKF had tubs of it. I Googled "instant snow" to learn more about it but Jean told me that they always get their "snow" at Rolla Books and Toys. If you can find any - one mom left to buy some right after the party because her son liked it so much. I'm not sure if the little guy pictured here is too thrilled with it or not!

Young Parents Holiday Celebration!

Last night we had a great turnout for our Young Parents Christmas Party. The night began with a yummy lasagna dinner provided by Chris Foster's "small group" at the First Christian Church. After dinner everyone had the chance to participate in creating their own holiday crafts thanks to Carol White and the FCCLA Club from Rolla High School.  Crafts included snow people, cookie decoration, and holiday gift bags. As you can see, some of the kids really enjoyed creating sugar loaded treats.

The Rolla Fire Department provided a brief program on holiday safety which featured Captain Jeff Breen, Scott Proffitt, Brad Woods, Kenny Chase, and Ryan Day (as a special person dressed in red!) Everyone also received a red fire-fighters hat! 

A special donation allowed us to purchase bikes or riding toys for all the children in the Young Parents program.  The children were thrilled and were practicing riding down the hallway. Finally, a group of very generous friends at Metro Business College purchased all the gifts for our participants and their children and PCCAN gave gifts to all the children. A true community Christmas celebration!

I realized after I put this "Note" together that I could have titled this "Everyone Working Together." I know we depend so much on one another to help make everything work here at The Partnership and the holidays are no exception. We are so grateful for all of the work everyone in our community does to help contribute to holiday joy. We do need - and appreciate - all you do - so very much!

                               From all of us at The Community Partnership

Happiest of Holidays,