Katie's Cozy Little Office

*stares around at lovely little office* YAY!

Hiiii everyone! I'll start putting things up in here as soon as I get my act together on what I'm doing.

Sorry I'm cutting it so close but here's the puzzle segment:

Here's some Christmas puzzles to get everyone in the holiday mood! First, a wordsearch (and it's nowhere near as evil as Rai's Christmas challenge was)!



Next, why don't you see how well you do at a Christmas crossword puzzle?



The two boxes below both spell a word that is nine letters long. See if you can figure it out!



Here's a challenge for you! Solve the following sudoku puzzle, but instead of using numbers, this time you'll be using the word "Christmas". This means that there will be two 's' in each row, column, and box!



Good luck and enjoy!



What do you guys think? I've made up answer keys as well in case you want them. I'll have article up as soon as I finish editing it!

As Christmas approached this year, there was a frantic scurry to complete as many of the wonderful Christmas challenges as possible. Rai has truly outdone himself this Christmas with nineteen intense challenges to attempt. Soon we all found ourselves subject to eyestrain as we stared at the monster wordsearch blankly, trying to find words among the letters that all seemed to blur together and scratched our brains as we tried to break the cyrptogram code.

Perhaps one of the most exciting events taking place was the Advent Calendar. Beginning on December 8, soon members were competing to be the first to turn in a series of challenges, one for each night until December 31. We all gathered in the now active Java Chat, waiting until midnight when the next challenge would be released. Rai would get a nice minute or two of silence to recover from everyone screaming at him that it was midnight as we scrambled to be the first to PM our finished challenge. However, it wouldn’t be long before everyone would rush back into the chat, begging Rai to tell them who was the first as he attempted to fend off the interrogators.

Excitement has been building steadily as the numbers in Elfie’s Charity Presents quickly filled up. Maybe some, like me, went with their lucky numbers, while other members might have closed their eyes and poked randomly, hoping to be lucky. Regardless, we’re all crossing our fingers for who the lucky member will be who receives the grand prize of 5,000 points for their house! I think we’re all hoping it’s gonna be a Hufflepuff, right?

Many of us have also been attempting the graphic and drabble challenges, something so evil only Rai could have managed to come up with the idea—25 of each. We racked our brain, we struggled through writers block and finding new ways of representing Christmas, one graphic or drabble for each day leading up to Christmas. Though some have managed to conquer the Mount Everest of the drabble challenges, no one has yet to complete the 25 graphic challenges, so if you think you have what it takes, head on over to the Christmas forum and get working!

The Christmas challenges have been a great way for members to get to know each other better. Challenges like the Kissing Under the Mistletoe encouraged members to chat with each other in the Java or Chatbox and the Christmas Common Room allowed us to get together to talk about the numerous events, and Christmas in general. Members stalked each others posts and interests once Secret Santa’s were assigned, hoping to make a present that their special person would enjoy. Rai’s want of getting HE members to become closer together has definitely been achieved by the Christmas spirit.

Whether or not you’re willing to take the embarrassment of caroling for all of HE to sing, or you’re a master chef and wish to design a meal, write stories, become and elf and design a Christmas toy, or maybe even just have fun doing a Christmas RPG, there’s plenty of challenges for everyone to win their House some housepoints! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and that you’re brining in lots of points for your House! And don’t forget to thank Rai for his gift of so many challenges to us this Christmas.

Merry Christmas!
Katie

Ooo, yes, I'd love to! I'll get working on it tomorrow if I have a snow day, or sometime this weekend. I've also been brainstorming ideas for activities and stuff so I'll post what I have then as well.

Just so I have it down (cause dates tend to creep up on me xD), what day do you want everything by?

Hi everyone!

I just thought I'd post my ides for what the activities are so you can tell me how you like them and give any suggestions and what not.

So first of all, like stephy suggested, people can submit their own drawings of hippos. Then I thought we might have a competition for the best HE birthday graphic and drabble, and as a reward, besides getting housepoints, we could feature the winner with the best drawing, graphic and drabble in the next Pensieve article. And maybe if people seem to like that idea we can hold these type of mini-competitions for each issue...just an idea, what do you guys think?

Oh, and finally, we could put in this picture of a hippo for people to print out, color in and then take a picture of and send it in as well. Not as a competition over who colors best but just as a fun activity?

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/worksheets/coloring/images/hippo.gif

Anyways, let me know what y'all think!

Oh no! I went back and found it so here it is for real this time. (; And I'm still looking at other pictures of hippos too in case I like one better than this. hehe



And that sounds good. I'll post up my finished articles over the next few days.

YAY! I'll get to work on putting everything together now.