The 2019 El Hogar team and friends and alumni have been awfully busy since September working on our fundraiser for El Hogar and to produce some very fine products for you this Christmas.  Our Gingerbread churches and houses, all hand decorated and each unique, are our popular sellers.  But then people love the chocolate bark and of course the beautiful note cards that our dear friend Marilyn Barnes produces for us each year.  All will be on sale at the St Luke's Christmas Market this year on December 1st (9 am to 2 pm) 

This particular table of decorated churches was after a productive afternoon with a number of people helping out.  




One of our new members, Mavis, has got the idea and is now very intent in her creative skills.  Looks like Alan is checking for ideas on how to do his decorating.  






Nan looks like she has enough candy to make her church very tempting for anyone!










Busy at work and each intense in their own creative world!!

 Before we can decorate, the structures have to be constructed.  So far, it is just our engineers who do that with preciseness and carefully putting together different size pieces in spite of the fact that in the rolling cutting and baking, we try to be exact. 









We had two groups with us this year, one from the Community Pathways Program from Bateman School who will take their decorated churches back for their school Christmas sale.  

Malene, an El Hogar friend who comes each year to help decorate, was able to bring two young colleagues from her business to spend an afternoon as part of the community volunteering program in their company (Wawanesa Mutual) that provides charitable support for programs in their community and they chose us!.  Thank you to our volunteers this year that have added to the dimensions of our project.  



To add to our Gingerbread, we also bring you our popular Christmas Bark back again this year!  With the thanks from our good friend and expert Chocolatier, Dr. Kerry Beal (http://www.thechocolatedoctor.ca/), we were able to package up 350 bags of our famous Bark made with high quality Belgian chocolate.  

First is to make sure the chocolate is just at the right temperature.





Spread and cooled in a pan.  

Packaged 

And ready to go.