Church Christmas Party

Hooray for Christian women of the world!  A friend and I delivered 11 pans filled with ingredients to women who had volunteered to make the heart attack potato casserole for the church's Christmas Dinner and Social.  Another leader delivered hams to a whole other army of women who volunteered to warm and slice them.  Others brought in salads and desserts.  The awesome men of our church set up all the tables and chairs and stacked them when the party was done. A few other women set up and decorated.  Stations for crafts and storytelling were supervised by women. Women served food, cleaned dishes people brought, and packaged leftovers for families in need. Men took out trash, vacuumed, and locked up. 

I am so proud to be part of a people that values serving and hard work because it makes for light work and good times for all. 

Neal reenacting the Santa terror he felt as a child

We enjoyed the party. The kids got to visit Santa, again.  We contacted our friend, Dave, who has really super good connections with the man in red to see if he could come for a visit.  Dave could not make it, but his wife, Liz, who is also on super good terms with Santa, accompanied him to our church's party.  After photos and gift requests, the kids made Christmas tree onaments. 

We sat down to dinner, well, 3 of we 4 but I joined them soon after serving the masses. My kids love ham and there was plenty.  I took a tiny spoonful of heart attack potato casserole because I don't have a gall bladder to deal with that much wrongness but it tasted oh so good.

We had a sing along and learned to sing Silent Night in Italian thanks to a sister missionary that just returned from there this week. Neal was great to be with the kids while Kari clean up the serving area and set out the desserts. Our bishop showed a couple videos about Christmas.  I really like the one entitled He is the Gift which is put out by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and can be found on YouTube.

Another tradition that our bishop encourages is decorating a Christmas tree with ornaments filled with a rolled up paper with a family name from our congregation.  One of our children gets to choose an ornament which we open later at home.  We get to think it over and decide how we can best show love to that family.  Will it be making treats for them, helping them with kids, washing their car, sitting next to them and getting to know them better on a regular basis?  We will see and we are looking forward to it.

Sadly, today Sophie woke with a low fever so we are going to keep her as still as we can so she can be better come Monday.  I don't want her missing all the festivities at school and just the general elevated hyperness (new word) and excitement of children the week before she gets out for vacation.

I did slip out and get a pedicure though, this morning.  My toes are glittery emerald green.  Feeling festive!