Branch Christmas Party

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my branch?  Well in case I haven't I just want you to know that I am so happy that Brandon and I live where we do.  We know some of the nicest people in the world.  I'm also really grateful for my calling.  If I wasn't in the Relief Society Presidency I think I would either need to get a job, or at least a hobby to occupy the planning side of my brain.  Instead I get to exercise my budding operations management skills while serving people that I love.    

Tonight was our Branch Christmas Party.  I was involved in a lot of the planning and organizing of the activity.  I also spent a lot of time helping get things ready.  Lots of other people gave a lot of service too and the end result was wonderful.  Here are Brandon, the girls, and me enjoying a rare moment where we were all actually in the same place at the same time tonight.  (I think I sat down for a total of 10 minutes even though I was at the church for a total of 5 hours today.)

Here are our wonderful Sister Missionaries.  Tonight just happened to be one of the nights that the the branch was in charge of feeding them so we invited them to the party.  Sister Hill is the one on the right - flashing the peace sign.  When she gets off her mission she is coming back to Utah for school and we are going to hang out because we are already BFF's.  (Seriously, she and her companion have invited me to go shopping with them on P-day)

There were so many people at the party. I heard the official count was 97.  Now that may not seem like a lot to those of you in wards, but our sacrament meeting attendance is usually around 60 so this was awesome!  There were some people who were former branch members who came back to visit.  It was like seeing old friends to see them walk back in.  Actually the branch is such a family it was more like seeing family members.  I'm normally not much of a hugger - or even a toucher for that matter - but I found myself touching people on the arm when I talked to them.  I even hugged a few people.  Yeah, I love the people in this branch.  

 We also had several new faces in the crowd.  There were about 3 or 4 inactive or non-member families who came to the dinner. (Yay for missionary work and really good advertising) I hope that they felt like they were among friends.  

 The food was really good.  Our Relief Society President who was in charge of the dinner had several people cook turkeys, and then had other people sign up for side dishes.  We had about 8 different variations of green bean casserole, potatoes, stuffing, and dessert.  And it was all really really good.  I made green bean casserole and Brandon made peanut butter fudge.

Several months ago President Jenson assigned me and Brandon to be in charge of a baby picture guessing game.  We ended up with 21 people who brought baby pictures.  I put the pictures onto card stock with sticky-tac, numbered the card stock, and put them on easels.  Then everyone in the branch tried to guess who was who.  It was fun.  Also, because I was in charge of that I didn't have any time to help in the kitchen (Thank goodness too - I just am not a kitchen helping type of girl.)  Instead I delegated.  Thank you Sister Moore for putting the dried onions on top of my green bean casserole and Thank you Sister Chappell for putting my fudge on the serving tray.

Tonight was the night that all the ornaments that we made at the RS activity were put onto the tree.  I love how it turned out.  I never really got a count of how many ornaments we made, but I bought 120 hooks and ran out of those with about 30 ornaments left.  

 I loved seeing all the ornaments hanging together.

 This is one of the the centerpieces that were on the food tables.  I asked our talented Sister Dalton to make 5 center pieces and she did a great job.  She gave me this one to keep!  I'm going to hang on to it forever.

 This picture is to show the table cloth on the food tables.  It is wrapping paper.  Our RS President came up with that cute idea.

 The center pieces on the tables were nativity scenes provided by branch members.  I didn't realize it at the time I took this picture, but this nativity scene actually used to be mine.  I gave it to the Primary President because I had 3 sets and she didn't have one at all.

At the end of the night I made sure everyone could go home with an ornament - or two or three or five.  All the kids especially loved getting to take ornaments.  It reminded me of when I was a kid and all the kids were allowed to eat all the left over gumdrops at a ward Christmas Party.  

I'm glad I was on the stage for this because I ended up staying on the stage while everyone else put away tables and chairs.  I just took care of little pregnancy-friendly tasks up there. 

Once everything had been cleaned up and I was back at home I was able to cross one of the last things off of my Big Things list for November and December.  I have this list so I don't accidentally over-commit myself.  It's been a life saver on several occasions.   It keeps me focused on what is important in my life.  Things like the branch.