Ward Christmas Party

I was asked to help with the ward Christmas party. It was a larger than life event which turned out completely beautiful in every way. The decorations were amazing. It took several people dozens of hours or labor to make it this way, but it was spectacular.  The theme was a whimsical candy type and turned out really cute.

I was in charge of the Program/Nativity portion of the party. Toni Thomas wrote an amazing program. She is super talented and so bright. It was fun to work with her and watch her work her magic. I was there to help her execute her vision.  My title was director  which meant I filled in the musical numbers, found cast members, rehearsed with everyone separate and together, props,  set, made phone calls to ask for all sorts of favors and help so that we had great sound, lighting, set, etc..... Someone else collected all the costumes so I only had to spend a couple of hours with her going over what she had and making sure it was all a good fit with the cast that I had lined up.  The costumes were perfect.

 Since I was asked mid-November and the party  was Dec 5th I only had to work on this for a few weeks.  This last week I spent a lot of my time on this and was glad that everything turned out so well. The program was lovely and executed well. All the musical groups  and actors did great. Toni was stunning as the "storyteller" - the narrator part who spoke to the children gathered round her feet.

This is a picture of the final moments of the program where the kids sing He Sent His Son.

The best compliment I received was from an older couple int he ward who said in 62 years of Christmas parties, this was the  best they had ever seen. The credit goes 100% to toni, but it was fun for me to be a part of it. It was special.

Luckily Dave was off work saturday so he got to spend the day with the kids.  Lexey actually came with me to the church first thing in the morning and stayed there ALL day helping. She was a great helper. Most of the morning she was helping the decorating people, in the afternoon she helped the food people put out silverware, drinks, napkins, rolls. She also held doors for people carrying in things and followed everyone around telling them things looked great. Lexey and I also helped paint some red on the small red and white candies on the pretty wall decorations pictured below.  She is a sunny little person and it was a fun day. She didn't eat much during the day but didn't complain. This morning she was  a bit of a mess and when I fed her, she ate A TON!

Meanwhile, Dave had Clare, Calvin and JoJo.  The most memorable moments of the day were when Dave took Clare to piano at 1 and then forgot to pick her up at 2. She sat outside the Franz house until 3 when she went in to use the phone. Poor thing. Holly was actually coming to church to music rehearsal at 3:30 so she brought Clare to me there. Apparently her daughter Maddie had been stranded at Ballet so we were not the only ones who had some scheduling miscommunication.

JoJo: "dad, I haven't seen mom all day. Isn't that so sad?"
Dave: " JoJo, that means you've been with me all day. That is fun."
JoJo: "but Dad, I don't really like you. Dad,  I still love you all the way to the sun and back, I just don't really like you. I like being with
mom."