A little Christmas party

I'm sitting here watching the snow....our children are all home from school and now on Christmas break, and Mikey is stuck in Denver because of the snow in SL, so I thought I could update the blog!

Here's what the tables looked like full. Julene, Rachel and then the Bishop's family.
Last weekend was our ward Christmas party. It went really, really well. It was a Journey to Bethlehem theme, so first we set-up tables on the floor and decorated them very simply. We told families to bring a blanket to sit on and then put the food out family-style. Because our ward has a million children, we decided to break the party up into 3 groups or journeys.

This worked out so nicely!

Our angelic children.....love you kiddos!
Rachel Orison got a script from another ward she was in and rewrote parts of it to fit our ward. So, after eating, each caravan was led by an innkeeper (Mike or Rick) and a Roman guard (Justin Smith) on their journey. First stop was Joseph's shop. Greg Hess (who is also in MoTab) was Joseph and two of his girls and his wife also helped. They sang a beautiful song and I heard that Greg got choked up at least once. This definately set the tone for the journey and everyone was quiet reverent. It didn't take long for people to feel the Spirit.

Next stop was Mary when they had stopped for the night and Joseph went for water...so she was alone. Mary is my piano student, Missy Smith. She is so close to Mary's age and dark hair....and angelic singing voice....seriously, I started bawling when I heard her sing. Her Mom, Ann, did the narrative.

Practicing...

B dressed up!
Last stop was with the shepherds and angels. Another piano student of mine, Braydon Elliott, was one who sang with his brother playing the viola. Our girls were angels and did great on their speaking parts. Other angels were Sydney's b.f.f., Abby Orison and Zoe Francis. Brandon got to be a shepherd boy, along with Josh Harwood and Taylor Francis. After their part was done, we showed the movie 'Luke II'.

Practicing...

I spent most of the time helping with food and setting tables, but people would come up to us after with tears and saying how wonderful it was. We were so happy that it worked out and was a great experience for us. Our Bishopric were awesome as we asked them to dress up as the Three Wisemen and hand out candy canes at the end.

Brother Summers, Bishop Stuart, Brother McQuiston

We were lucky and got to use the Stake's nativity costumes for a lot of the parts. We also asked 3 people in the ward to do the sets and they turned out incredible!

So, very happy to have it over, but so grateful for all the help we had this year. We have a great committee and such a supportive ward! Merry Christmas!!