Christmas deliveries

 

As part of my calling, I am involved in bringing items to families in the ward who are in need.  I got to spend the better part of today, shopping, organizing, calling, and delivering.  Not everyone gets to be a part of this, but it really is a blessing to be able to be one of the people who gets to see the relief piece of the Relief Society.  I'm grateful for the time I had to visit the families and to help in the process of delivering a small piece of relief this Christmas season. 

Cookies anyone?

 

Saturday was baking day!  Clockwise from the top left: Million $ Cookies, Pfeffernuese, Russian Tea Cookies, Peppermint Bark, Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls, and Dark Chocolate Ginger Cookies.

 

And I went to bed with these 4 sheets of Anise Drops "resting".

I baked the Anise Drops after church on Sunday and they turned out great. 

 

This close up is really for my dad...good feet, smooth tops!  Cookie anyone?

Karate Joseph and the sheep

 

We went to the ward Christmas party this past weekend and the kid who was supposed to be Joseph didn't make it.  They came out into the audience right before it started and asked Andrew if he would step in.  He was a great sport about it and did, but the costume wasn't there either.  So...they pieced this together and when he came out, I was so amused.  It's a little hard to see, but he has a bathrobe and a sweat style headband on.  He looks like he's the karate kid, or a boxer.  We smiled back and forth during the entire thing.  He really is a great sport! 

And then there was our little sheep...

 

So cute and cuddly! 

Sunrises

 

The other morning there was a beautiful sunrise - the colors got really, really bright orange.  We all kept going back to the window to see it change. 

 

On Friday, Ava was so excited because she thought the sunrise was blue.  She wanted to keep coming back to see, but needed to get ready for school.  I told her that I would take a picture every few minutes for her.  These are really for her.  Ava's blue sunrise!

School concerts and parties

 

The school Christmas concerts were on Wednesday.  They did the concerts at 8:30 and 12:30.

 

This is the 1st grade class.  They did such a great job and were so, so cute!

 

Here are the 4th graders.  They were awesome too!

 

I love to see the kids and how hard they have worked.  They really did put on a nice program!!

 

Ava'a class party was on Thursday.  We kept things pretty simple this time...

 

 

The kids decorated cookies...there is quite a stack of yumminess on Ava's cookie!

And we made these cute snow man ornaments (that are stuffed with marshmallows).  The kids loved them and they really turned out great.  It was a fun afternoon with Ava's class and we all had a great time!  Zach's class had their party on Friday, but they just decided to watch a movie and bring treats to share.  The kids were happy and are now even happier to be off of school for 12 days.  Let the real holiday begin!!



I go cookieless

 

Every year Elsie has a Christmas cookie exchange party.  I am not really a fan of cookie exchanges - my family loves our cookies too much to trade them - but I love a good party...and Elsie always throws a good party!  So many great ladies...

 

Great conversation...

 

Cute friends...

 

And the hostess with the mostess!!  I love that Elsie invites me every year even though I have always shown up cookieless to her cookie party!!  My favorite cookie exchange ever!!

Happy birthday Greg!

 

We went out to dinner with friends on Greg's actual birthday - Friday the 13th - but two nights later I made dinner at home and we celebrated with the kids and with another family, the Litels.  This is the real picture of Greg blowing out the candles...but I realized that the flash was weird and so I wanted to try another picture!

 

These are Greg's posed candle blowing pictures...

 

Another...

 

And the Litels...such a great family! 

 

We had a nice night celebrating Greg!  Happy Birthday!!!

All girl...

 

Ava is always looking for the next girly thing she can get her hands on.  She asks us for everything she sees that is girl related.  She has been wanting to try on real high heels at a store, and tonight we let her try on 1 at TJ Maxx.  Obviously it will be a while before these fit her, but she'll be ready when they do! 

Doubling up on the decorations

Well, it made for a little bit of crazy scheduling, but there was a missionary zone conference lunch on Friday!  One great piece was that we left all of the decorations up from the RS Christmas party the night before. The missionaries were thrilled to have it decorated, and I was thrilled to at least have that piece of the work done (before I even started the event)! 

 

Since it was their Christmas lunch, we did turkeys, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, veggies, fruit, pie and ice cream.  There were a lot of women who pitched in and helped, and it turned out really nice. 

 

The missionaries were very grateful for the lunch, and I was grateful that I got to double up on the decorations!

Relief Society Christmas Party

Last night was our RS Christmas party!  It's our first big event since being called and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  It looks brighter in all of these pictures than it did in real life, so just imagine everything with much more of a twinkle and Christmas light lighting! 

 

We brought all of the tables in close to the center and then lined the sides with Christmas trees to kind of cozy up the gym.  It really made it feel nice when you were sitting inside the little forest. 

 

Each table had wrapped gifts on it.  You were given a tag when you walked in that coordinated with the present at the table.  Our way of mixing up who was sitting where, but keeping with our theme, 'The Gifts of Christmas'. 

 

It's really hard to tell in this picture, but the stage had 3 large boxes that were wrapped and 10 glass block gifts.

 

Here they are a little closer up...

 

And very close up!

 

Part of the dessert buffet - while it was still in the kitchen!

 

The women started to arrive at 6:00 and we had appetizers and let them mingle.  At 6:30 we served them dinner - soup, bread, salad. 

At 7:00 the Choraliers came in and did a beautiful group of songs.

 

 

Here they are a little closer up.  They had great costumes on that really added to the ambiance.  After they finished, my councilors, secretary and I each took 3 or 4 minutes and talked about the gifts of Christmas.  We chose the gift of music, of time and friendship, of giving, and of the Savior. 

If you look back a few posts, you'll see the activity where women came and helped sand and paint boards.  This is what my presidency did with them!  We made these nativity boards for everyone to take home.  We had 3 colors to choose from...

 

 

It was a really wonderful evening and turned out just like we hoped it would.  The women got to take a little break, feel the real spirit of the season, eat wonderful food, visit (we loved that they didn't want to leave when it was over...the sign of a successful party), and even take their own gift home. 

 

I was tearful with my presidency when we were heading out last night after cleaning up.  I am grateful they are willing to work so hard to do something nice for the women, grateful for their input and guidance, and so grateful to be able to call them friends.