Back in July I was told I would be in charge of our ward adult Christmas party. At the time I told the RS president to not talk to me about Christmas in July, really I had to keep telling her to stop. In September I started to think about it. I was given the instructions that this should be a wonderful night, the most spectacular of evenings, it would be our (MY) gift to the ward. I had menus turned down because they weren’t night of all nights quality. Entertainment ideas quickly shot down, needless to say the pressure was on. In a nutshell I recruited my committee, asked for additional star power to help and got to work. I had never done something at this level before so it was A LOT of work and extra time for me. Decisions were made and worked out and then they had to change and be done again. I easily spent 300 hours on this party, and tried to keep my family and home running as well.
The theme of the night was “Christ is the light of the world”, everything was done around light. Lots of christmas trees and lights, candles, spotlights on pictures of Christ, luminaires leading to the door of the church.
Without further ado, here are some pics of the magic.
2 days of setting up, yes you read that correctly 2 days!
People hanging from the basketball hoop.
Testing everything out.
I cannot believe I didn’t take a picture of the mayhem at my house. Most of the food was prepared in my not industrial sized kitchen. Pots and pans and food were everywhere. After hours and hours and hours it was time for the festivities to begin.
Appetizer table with Aliska standing to the side.
The pictures do not give justice to the beauty of the room.
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Me and my reign.
It looked like a wedding reception, really I wish we had found someone to get married, such a waste we didn’t.
Centerpieces on the tables.
We started out with appetizers, cranberry salsa with cream cheese served with chips, baguettes with pesto, fresh mozzarella and sundried tomatoes, fruit in little cups with sprite. They were all fantastic, pretty much every last one was eaten up.
The main course was salad de maison, homemade rolls, pork tenderloin with a gravy sauce, scalloped sweet potato stacks and a stuffing with 3 different kinds of bread, apples, golden raisins and sausage. There was no time to get pictures of the food, but it was heavenly…..absolutely delicious.
Dessert was homemade ice cream pies, also delicious. Pretty much a 5 star restaurant kind of meal. Si and I did most of the cooking, but really Si held my hand through the whole planning and preparing process.
The program was written by Jolene Cash (I can do hard things as long as she is right by my side!) Beautiful narration and songs by different talented people in our ward and/or their family members. We then watched a DVD slide show which showed pictures of different members of the ward holding up a white board which had written on it, a time when they have felt or feel the Saviors light in their lives. Let’s just say that was the most amazing thing that could have been done. Definitely the icing on the cake.
The spirit was so strong at the end of the night. As soon as the closing prayer was said, I turned to the person next to me and said, “That was worth every second of work.” Maybe I am not on the same high now and might not say that tonight as I have put another several hours into the clean up and returning of items!
OK I have gone on and gone and on. The last highlight of the night was the 650 luminaires we made and had the young men deliver along the streets of our neighborhood during the party. Everyone (who left before they had burned out) drove home along a lit path. (Another of Jolene’s amazing ideas)
Everyone pitched in and brought down the days and days of work in no time.
Even Bishop’s hanging from the hoop.
Without her, this night would have just been any other regular party.
The kind words we heard from everyone and continue to hear were really nice. People loved the night. It really was MY gift to everyone!
