 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Its definitely that time of year, when we tie a bow in our gatherings for the calendar year and tell folks see you next year, when we put on festive clothes and sing carols, and when holiday hams and cheese balls make their way around the table along with presents and smiles. That’s right its Christmas party time!
Back in Dallas one of my favorite times was the Staff Christmas “White Elephant” Gift Exchange. Now they’ve never done anything like that here before, but we thought why not give it a try? So Emily made invitations and refreshments and everyone brought a $10 present. She put together a cookie decorating station where people could decorate their one Christmas cookies… Micah ate a handful of sprinkles. We had a snowflake making competition “play-off style” where each snowflake went head to head with another until we had a winner. The prize was going first for secret santa.
We really had a great time with everyone over to the house. The presents were fun, and it seemed the Chocolate ones kept on getting stolen. I think between the gifts and the cheese ball everyone got something to enjoy to take home. It was nice to reach the end of the year with our staff, and almost everyone showed up. Healthy staff relationships are key to working over here and we’re thankful for the joy it is to serve here with all these amazing people.
The next day was a children’s Christmas Fair program in Governor’s Harbor. This is their second annual Christmas Fair at the Leon Levy Nature Preserve where they had songs and crafts for the kids, and well as reindeer rides (which was actually a horse wearing antlers), and Santa made an appearance at the end of the program.
It was really very cute. Many families were there and we knew a bunch of the kids. They had cookies and eggnog and hotdogs, and all of it was completely free! We couldn’t believe it. They even had stocking giveaways for the children at the end of the program. Micah had a fun time and he made a candle for his craft covered with glue and glitter which is now sitting here on my desk. Most of all it was fun to attend the fair with our small group. All of the families drove from Savannah Sound together and going to an event like this is fun with family but even better with friends too.
Yesterday we had the official Christmas program for Windermere. Emily was in charge of the entire thing again, seems like an awful big task, but she does an amazing job. Last year was class competition via “American Idol-style” with judges and everything. This year it was a Christmas Class competition via “Minute to Win It-style” with crazy 60 second games pitting class against class in between the class presentations.
The children thought it was hilarious. They all did a good job participating and it was fun to watch them carry cotton balls on their noses, hurl marshmallows through wreathes, shake jingle bells out of their backs, and a myriad of other whimsical competitions that made the whole event a joy. The 11th graders came out with the win over the other classes, but everyone wins in the end with a great Christmas program.
The class presentations were pretty amazing too. Their dances were artistically choreographed and skits and songs were well done.
Finally last night was our Christmas party for our Bible College class. Its been a good term #1 and everyone commented on how they’re thankful for the training. I had to warn them that the courses are just going to be getting more challenging as we enter term #2, but they seemed up to the task. We had another cheese ball from Emily and just an enjoyable time wishing each other a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I’m sure you’ve got your own Christmas staff parties and programs to attend, and we were blessed to share the ones we just had with such marvelous friends and family. Merry Christmas to you!