Survival

The "Dream Team." I never could do it without this awesome group of people.


I survived another ward Christmas Party. This year's party was for the adults and the primary had a party for the kids the next morning. Since we didn't have to worry about having activities to keep the kids engaged we had a more serious program. Last year, at the last minute, I thought I should have incorporated our ward's annual giving tree into our ward party but it was too late to do anything about it. This year I made it the main focus of our activity. We asked the Elmer's and the Caviness's to find families that we could provide Christmas for in Peru and Kirtland where these couples are serving missions. Since we were serving a family in Peru we went with a latin theme for our decorations and food. We used white lights strung across the ceiling, made paper wheels out of construction paper for the walls and made tissue paper flowers for the centerpieces. It turned out so cute and was cheap and easy as well. The evening started out with dinner. We did Cafe Rio style pork salads. They were a hit--easy to make and everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner. After dinner we played a quick game of name that tune with Christmas carols. I made a little movie where I played 10 second clips of songs and then put a graphic up with the song number. It was easy to do and was a nice transition. After that we served dessert which was a choice of tres leches cake or cheesecake. After that our ward choir sang two fun Christmas songs and then we moved into our program which was awesome. The theme of the program was "Angels Among Us." I wanted the members of our ward to see how we were being real life angels for the families we were helping this Christmas. I asked Dawn Ann, who is recently recovered from breast cancer and Cheryl, whose daughter received a liver transplant several years ago, to share how angels had helped them through these major trials. I then told the story of the methodist church in Oklahoma who raised money that paid for Lily's surgery when she was a baby in China. Then we showed a video message that the Caviness's had made telling us about the family in Kirtland that we are helping out for Christmas. We ended the program by showing the Reflections of Christ video. Most of our ward had never seen it. It was amazing when it ended. The room was so silent. No one wanted to make a peep because the spirit was so strong.

I am getting better at managing these ward parties. They are a huge undertaking but luckily I have a big committee of people I can count on. We each had an assignment so it wasn't too big of a burden on any one person. The rest of our weekend was busy with a primary party in the morning, Christie's wedding reception in the evening,and volunteering at our Stake's Nativity Exhibit on Sunday. I took Monday to relax and get things done around the house and I'm feeling footloose and fancy free today. Nothing to worry about until my next big activity in about 3 or 4 months.