The first Saturday in December we had our annual Ladies Christmas Gathering at GHBC. This year I chose to offer a soup, salad, and breadstick luncheon at the church starting at 11:30 am. We also had an optional cookie exchange at the end of the meal for anyone that wanted to participate.
Ladies who wanted to be in the cookie exchange were asked to bring 3 dozen cookies or candies. We used 1 dozen of the treats as our dessert after the meal and the other 2 dozen were set out for the exchange. It was really pretty to have all of those festive cookies and candies lined up on a long table. It took two 8 foot tables to hold them all. We had snowmen plastic trays laid out to hold the cookies. I did not bring my camera that morning. I wish I could make that more of a habit so I would be able to share the pictures here. I am not going to beat myself up over it though...time in this world is too short to spend on that task.
Each table had a small tree wrapped in red bead garland. We put 12 gift tags on each tree as ornaments but each lady present was able to take one home with her to use. I found these gorgeous ornaments at Sam's this year. 60 tags in a box with 20 designs. More than enough to decorate the 5 tables we set up. We had 7 chairs at each table. About 27 ladies signed up ahead of the gathering but we like to have extra place settings for last minute attendees.
I chose Solo Christmas paper products this year for the cups, plates, and napkins. They were in bright red, green, and white. It looked festive!
Ladies in the church signed up to bring soups so we had a nice variety of corn chowder, loaded bake potatoe, tortellini, and chicken noodle. The salad bar was wonderful. L and I had a variety of toppings. They were all so yummy! And we had homemade breadsticks. G and E helped me make them the day before the gathering. My first batch ended up in the garbage as they were ugly and hard and believe it or not covered with glitter. LOL! I had moved some items that morning that had gold glitter on them. I washed my hands before starting the bread but it was obvious that I had not gotten all of the glitter off. It was funny and embarrassing.
One not so good thing happened at this event. One of the ladies tripped and fell. She landed on a wrist that had been broken in her past. She said it was hurting and later went for X-rays. They told her it was not broken then called back a day later when another person read the tests and said it was broken and then they changed it again to say it was not broken. Wow! What a roller coaster ride for R! She wore a sling for a day or two then the doctor told her to resume her normal routine. I hope the Lord will continue to heal her wrist so she is back at 100%.
<^..^> Lori
