The Night of all Nights

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!

Thankful

Yes, I am very behind on blogging.  That is just how it is going to be.  In a nut shell, Thanksgiving has passed, but I am still thankful for many many things.  Too many to post right now, but  I still am.

Thanksgiving was nice and warm in sunny Arizona.  We had a very enjoyable time with our friends and family there.  I got to see my childhood best friend and meet her new husband, it was so nice to see her so happy.  Bryan got to go golfing with his childhood best friend and we went to dinner with he and his wife.  In fact we ended up driving his wife back to Utah so she could go to her Grandmothers funeral.  We had a very nice time with them.

I hosted my first annual Melanie is in charge 5k/10k.  The only rule was everyone had to finish at least a 5k, I was the only one to continue on.  Bryan, Brandon, Jacob, Gavin and Stratton and I burned those holiday calories!

It was so nice to run everyday in the warm weather!

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with the extended Sherwood family.  Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun.  Jonah was thrilled that in his mind he looked like Santa Claus!

Jacob and Kate playing at the park, once again in the warmth.

Brandon and Gavin enjoying the warmth.

Jonah and cousins bouncing to his hearts content.

The trip went faster than usual and the drive didn’t put me over the edge…what is up with that?  It must have been that I spent so much of the drive working on the ward Christmas party planning!

Thankful for the many many years and memories of this tree.  It made me really sad to see it go, even though it was way too tall misshapen and in the way.  It was the crazy wind storm of December 1st which brought this and our 2 front fences down.

Thankful for people like Trent Price who worked hard to get it off the Barlow’s house!

The aftermath of trees all over the front yard.  So thankful for the many people who worked very hard on Sunday to clean up all of Bountiful.  3 pickup trucks hauled our tree away…..I didn’t know the people who belonged to 2 of the trucks.

Thankful Jonah was sooooooo excited to meet Santa.  He had the biggest grin around. (not so thankful I missed the picture with him looking at the camera)

Thankful Jacob would still participate, even though he couldn’t come up with anything to ask.

And most thankful for all the people who have helped me with this way over my head planning of the ward party.  3 more days and I am free!!!!!!!

My Favorite Day

Our annual tree hunt is one of my most favorite days of the year. We had to move the date up a week earlier this year since we will be out of town for Thanksgiving. Saturday was the day. I was so worried we would have to cancel because of a storm, but it ended up being the most perfect day. It was very cold, but I was toasty warm the whole time. The sun was shining and the area was beautiful.

Jonah and Marles

Me and my perfect tree (one of them, I got two this year and I am sooooo excited!)

Bryan not so happy about hauling many trees out of

the woods.

Aliska warming her frostbit toes.

Hauling the many many trees home!

Smuggling one of the trees home since Nate left his permit at home.

The day exceeded all my expectations. I loved it! I probably hiked around the mountain side the equivalent of running 6 miles. It is so fun to just tromp through the snow, stepping over logs, stepping in streams, not having a clue what is under my feet and then chopping down the tree and dragging it to the car. Lot of fun for me.

Family

About a month or so ago we had an impromptu family service night at Nate and Aliska’s house.  It was so great.  Everyone was there helping prepare their backyard for sod.

Nothing spectacular happening except the feeling of being together and helping out.  We always have fun when we are together.  I kind of like hanging out with these people!

Fun Filled Weekend

For Tiffany’s birthday I gave her a weekend with no children.  She could choose to go somewhere or just be at home without them.  She chose this past weekend and so we had a fun time with 5 friends over.  As usual we wish we could say our kids were cousins or something that doesn’t sound as odd as “my best friend’s kids”.  One of Brandon’s friends had called Friday afternoon to see if he could hang out.  He replied, “My cousin is here for the weekend so I can’t.”  He hung up the phone, looked at me and said, “That is much easier than saying, my Mom’s best friends daughter is here.”  I completely agreed.  They all act like cousins and actually are the only kids my kids are allowed to have a sleepover with.  Anyways, we had a wonderful two days with them.

Friday night, Megan played nail parlor and taught Ellie and I how to properly make our nails look their best.

Saturday morning shot after everyone survived their night of sleep (yes my basement still looks like the 70’s)

And a much more formal “family” photo

An extra table set up to fit everyone at dinner time!  Jacob and Luke called this their news spot….they felt like they were on the news in front of the window.

Sledding in the daylight and then again in the pitch dark.

Ellie really wanted to sleep with Jonah in his bed.  She finally agreed to let Joshua sleep in the room as well…on the floor.

We all had a great time and as I kept telling Tiffany, it was no big deal having an extra 5 kids around.  They are very good kids and a lot of fun to be around.  No drama, besides Megan’s pranks and trying to get she, Jacob and Luke to go to bed at night!

They left this morning a bit after we went to church and once we got home this is what my kids did

I didn’t get a picture of Brandon and Bryan doing the same thing!

Tonight as Jonah was getting into bed he said, “can Joshua and Drew come over to play tomorrow because I haven’t seen them in a yong time.”

Pajama Day

Yesterday was pajama day at Jonah’s preschool.  He was so looking forward to the day.  They had pancakes for snack and I guess enjoyed the day in their pajamas.  I asked Jonah which pajamas he wanted to wear and he picked these.

I am probably the only person who got such a kick out of the way he looked.  His little toothpick body with shoes, a jacket and backpack.

Pretty cute little boy.  If I could freeze his age I would!  Actually I would have frozen it when he was 18 months old.

Happy Halloween 2011

I LOVE Halloween! I love dressing up, I love going around visiting with all my neighbors, I love eating homemade donuts, I love the thought of kit kats and almond joys being in my house, I just love it.

I always want to go to a Halloween party and so I decided next year I am having a party! Don’t let me forget.

I spent a long time wrapping Jacob up like a mummy, it lasted about 5 seconds.

Jonah saw this monkey costume at Costco and fell in love with it. He carried it around the store hugging it. The largest size they had was 24 months…..thank goodness it fit him. And yes he wanted to carry around the giraffe halloween bag.

Brandon broke my rule and made me mad. My kids can go trick or treating every year of their life……as long as they really dress up. He was all set to be a certain NBA player and then he comes running in the door and says, “Me, Sam and Davis are all being football fans”. I said, “that is not dressing up! That is who you really are”. I let him go, but was mad all night. I won’t ever let that happen again!

I am very proud to say that I made that skirt. Yes, me all by myself (with lots of walking me through it help from Tiffany) made it. I was very proud of it. I spent so much time and thought on the skirt, I forgot to get a cute shirt to go with. Oh well, maybe next year.

It must run in the family. Here is Nate and Aliska dressed up like characters from the movie Labyrinth. I was so jealous of them going to a party.

And the sight last night as the boys were trading candy. Jonah didn’t really understand what they were doing and kept giving all his candy away. He was mad when I had him put it all back in his grocery sack, he really wanted the bag!

Oh until next year……..I will have to be thinking about my party all year long!

I almost forgot to add pics of our pumpkins! I spent a LONG time on this scooby doo one for Jonah. Next year we are sticking with traditional jack o lanterns!

Brandon and Jacob did nice jobs on theirs, although I think I did most of Jacob's.