Progressive Dinner 2013 for Church Staff

Saturday was the second annual church staff

Christmas Progressive Dinner... it's just the tiniest

way to show the staff at our church (along with their

spouses, who usually end up doing quite a bit at the
church too!) that they are appreciated and loved!
*Click HERE to see the first one done in 2012*

There were three host homes, and I got to host again!
I set up a table for 7 in the living room, and a table

for 8 in the dining room. I hate that I had to split the
group up, but there was no other way for me to have it.

I used silver chargers at each place setting. For the dining room,
I made white/black napkins cinched with silver napkins rings.
In the living room, I used silver snowflake napkins.
There wasn't much room left on the table for centerpieces, so
I had to keep them small. The living room centerpieces were just
a couple silver decorative tealights. The dining room centerpiece
was just some ornament balls on a decorative tray.

My house was the main course meal stop.

We served prime rib, mac n cheese casserole, green

beans, deviled eggs, and rolls. MMM mmm good!

I can only take credit for the green beans though.
Thanks to Tom, Susan, Danya, Mandy, Evie and
Bethany for helping me out with the main course!

And why didn't I take a pic of the FOOD?!?

When the staff arrived, we had them pick a seat and they
could eat rolls while they waited on their drink and plate of
food. BUT.... I realized that I am not a very good waitress!!
Good thing I stuck to babysitting when I was in college!
 

After everyone was finished eating, I had the staff play a
little white elephant game. We did this last year - I had good
intentions of coming up with some sort of entertainment that
would be different, but time got away from me. Maybe next year.

 

Anyways, I just went to the dollar store and bought things that I

thought were pretty useful.... lint roller, back scratcher,

disposable casserole dishes, garment bag, ear plugs,

expandable water bottle, high heel insoles, lighter,

Christmas socks, 8 pack of tissues, multi outlet adapter,

massage tripod, eye mask, a shammy and thermal socks.

So nothing was crazy amazing... but its still something that

will probably get used in the near future, or at least re-gifted! Ha! 

 

I think they had a pretty good time... if they didn't,
you could have fooled me!!

Sorry mom... but you are so darn cute, I had to include it!

Also, just want to give a HUGE thanks to all the others
who were involved in putting this night together....

Rebecca Albert and Kurt & Jami Buchanan
for opening their homes as well as making food
for the appetizer and dessert stops.

Leslie Arrison, Sharon Rice, and Jim & Melinda
Beuhring for babysitting 12 children! Whew!

Stacey Martin, Mary Beaty and Jennifer Cottrell
for providing food for the kids and babysitters.

 Lauren Savory, Tom Halfhill, Susan Greenwood,
Danya McClintic, Mandy Black, Mary Beaty
 and Anna Lewis for making delicious food and drinks!

Evie Davis and Bethany Sharp for helping me serve food.
I don't think they knew what they were signing up for... the
poor things ended up helping me clean my house too because
I was running out of time, and they came over early! Love you girls!

A "Golden" 50th Anniversary Celebration

I hope and pray that Isaiah and I will live long

enough to make it to our fiftieth wedding anniversary...

In this day and age, it's almost unheard of for a couple

to stay married for (or live) that long! But there's a special

husband and wife at my church who celebrated this

event last month, and my sister and I had the privilege of
helping them put the party together!

 

Allan and Donna had a pretty good idea of what they

wanted for this party... they had already picked the day

and time, asked that it be a more casual affair, and wanted

the colors to be black, white and gold. So my sister and I took

that information and ran with it!  Now, black and gold aren't
your typical "casual" colors, but we decided if we used
chalkboards throughout the party, it would help create the
informal atmosphere that the Hutchison's were wanting.
 

Here's the invitations... Rebekah designed them - this was the first

time she's ever done something like this, and it looks better than all
the invitations I looked at online! I mean, this looks professional.
 And what's even better is that all the fonts were downloaded for free! 

 

The invitations were sent in handmade envelopes, made from

gold antique-colored scrapbook paper. They were so sweet!

 

We decided pretty early on what we wanted for centerpieces...

Wine bottles that we spray painted with chalkboard paint, and

then Rebekah wrote on them with a chalkboard marker. The flowers

in each bottle were borrowed from a coworker of mine (thanks Jenna!).

The mason jars had a couple pictures of Allan and Donna in

them, and were filled with vegetable oil. And I already had

the gold fabric leftover from a party a few years ago. 

Next, we found this adorable printable for FREE...

how perfect?!? The breakdown of just how many

months, days, hours, and minutes that Allan and Donna

have been married. I loved it!! 

We decided to use the time quantities from the printable above

as decoration on the backs of the chair covers. Rebekah printed

them onto the same scrapbook paper that was used to make

the envelopes for the invitations.

 

These banners are a little difficult to read, but here's what they say: 

loved you then

love you still

always have

always will 

 

 

 Donna requested that there to be gold candy at the reception

to signify their "golden" anniversary... so we baggied up the

candy and put cute little chalkboard sticker tags on them.

 

Our idea for a guestbook came from my cousin's wedding

earlier this year.... a canvas print that everyone signs!

So we arranged with Allan and Donna to take some pictures

on a weekend that Rebekah was coming into town.  The

Hutchison's are so adorable (they don't look like they have

enough years on them to have been married for this long!!!)

and there were so many good pictures to choose from.

Of course, we had a chalkboard with a rhyme that told

people we wanted them to sign the picture...   

 

 

 

 I wish I would have taken a picture of the canvas after

everyone had signed it. I just love that it's something

different than the usual guestbook!

 

Rebekah made an enormous 50, painted gold with a hint

of glitter. And we reused these gold yarn balls from a friend's

wedding that was in 2010... I honestly can't believe they haven't

been thrown away yet! But we needed to add a little something,

and they did the trick. This is Allan and Donna with their

daughter and her boyfriend.

For cups, we used mason jars with gold scrapbook paper

tags tied on with various ribbons. And don't you just love

the striped straws? Found these suckers on sale at Target! 

 

 Allan and Donna happened to get married the day after

President Kennedy was killed. She kept these newpapers

all these years... along with her wedding announcement.

So we displayed these wedding day headlines.

 

Donna had this delicious cake made, and she still had her

original cake topper that was used on the top! I love it!

We displayed a few more pictures from their photo shoot,

and hung some banners that read "50th & Forever".

 This piece of decor at the party came right off Allan and Donna's

wall at their house! But it was just too perfect not to use.

Donna helped us out a little and found gold plates, gold coffee cups,

and black and white napkins with their initial on it while she was on

vacation!!! They were perfect for the party!

 I was a tiny bit overwhelmed because this was a big party

and I didn't have Rebekah with me on the actual weekend

of the party... so I didn't get as many pictures of everything

that I wanted. I missed a whole section that included a

picture of Allan and Donna on their wedding day! I'm so sad.

 

Allan and Donna had about 100 friends and family that were able

to join them to celebrate this big day... there was lots of yummy

food, delicious cake, some funny stories shared, a game to

see how well Allan and Donna know each other after 50 years,

and all in all, it was a joy to share this amazing day with them!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hutchison! 

10 Year High School Reunion

I can't believe that TEN YEARS have passed since I graduated

high school.... I'm now officially one of "those old people" that
my younger self always pitied! You know, the one who can't function

past midnight, who has an internal alarm clock that won't let her sleep
past 7:00, who would rather spend most Friday evenings at home, in her
sweats, watching a redbox movie while eating kettle corn, and if she's

feeling a little crazy, will drink a root beer! Yeah, that's my life now.

 

BUT, I'm 100% content with where I am at this point in my life, and I

didn't even dread my high school reunion (like so many often do). I

graduated with a relatively small class, around 100 people, and although

Facebook has made it much easier to keep up with what's happening in

everyone's lives, I was excited to catch up with friends I hadn't seen for years.

 

So Saturday was the big day. Even though I knew for ten years that it was

coming, it kinda crept up on me! Weird. Unfortunately, I've been sick for

over 3 weeks now, and Saturday was actually one of the worst days I'd had.

But, because my sis was one of the people in charge of planning the reunion,
I, of course, had to help her! And I ended up spending a good portion of
Friday and Saturday helping set everything up. I was pretty much exhausted

by the time the reunion actually started. At any rate, I'm so glad I went and

stayed the whole time - I loved seeing everyone, meeting their spouses, fiance's

and significant others, and had fun dancing, eating, and laughing! Too bad I
look sick and tired in every picture. Oh well!! Better luck next time, I suppose.

**I found my necklace in New York City the weekend before the
reunion.... the pictures don't do it justice because it was so pretty!**

A special part of the reunion decoration honored our friend
who was tragically killed in a wreck shortly after graduation.
Antwuane was everyone's friend and he will always be missed
and remembered. His picture was set up at the entrance, along with
our senior yearbook, a chalkboard welcome sign, and some music playing.

We had the reunion at The Palms, which is a smaller reception

hall about 20 minutes from our high school. It was catered by

Le Bistro, a delicious restaurant, and they served heavy appetizers.

For entertainment, there was a DJ, and a photo area with lots of props.

 

  Although only 27 alumni were able to come, it was a really

nice time and I'm definitely looking forward to the next one!
Hoping that some people who didn't come to this one, for one

reason or another, will be able to come to the next. They missed out! 

 

Beak's Halloween Party

My sister helped throw a Halloween party over the

weekend for her small group at her church... and I

love everything that they had! It looks "spook-tacular"!

 

Here's the invite she sent out... I love the fonts!!

 

They served TONS of food (no tricks, all treats!) and

labeled everything a gruesome or scary name... so creative!

 

 

The tables were decorated simple but so cute....

the centerpieces were made just by printing a picture

on computer paper, cutting it to size to fit in the glass

vase, and then put a flameless candle inside.

This first picture you can't tell how it glows, but scroll

down and you'll see! It looks amazing!

 

My sister looked so cute... she made a parrot costume out of

feather boas! She wanted to kind of coordinate with her husband,

who doesn't really like to get all costumed up, but went as a pirate

I think it's cute that Rebekah was a parrot and her nickname is BEAK =)

 

And this is one of my favorite costumes that was there....

Mr. and Ms. Pacman! They won the prize for the most creative =)

 

 Great party sis! I wouldn't expect anything less from you =)
It definitely looks like everyone had a great time!! 

Happy Halloween everyone!!