tonight was our ward christmas party - and wow did they go all out!! the theme was a night in bethlehem and our rec hall was decorated to look like a marketplace, with food stalls all about... we entered through the foyer, and paid our tax (a canned item to go to the donation bins our ward has been filling for the christmas appeal) before receiving a bag of coins to buy our dinner.
we made our costumes that afternoon along with some friends, the boys were the most fun, queen sheets with a neck hole, a hole each side under the arm to thread a belt through - and a piece of cloth and a tie for their heads. us girls were rocking a robe with a belt and a tied headband - and our little ones had pillow cases with neck and arm holes along with a ribbed piece of fabric tied around their waists. easy! maybe we should just rock on back to biblical times, there'd be a whole less worrying about clothes wouldn't there!!
part of the evening was also a nativity play, complete with songs... the highlight was definitely watching some of our friends play the three wise men. they were amazing!
dinner from the stalls was great - biblical style, being served by all these lovely people. what a wonderful idea and so well done! we had turkish bread, beans, fresh fruit, kebabs, icecream (which i am fairly certain didn't exist in biblical times, but you know, maybe i'm wrong...) and were most definitely full - with coins left over!
as you can see from the pictures, everyone got right into it - there were very few people who weren't dressed up to the theme :) was extremely cool, especially all the jokes being thrown at doug for his beard - with people wondering if he had grown it especially for the night... hilarious
each of the stalls looked amazing, i can only imagine how long it took to set up everything up, but i know it was definitely worth the effort! it really helped everyone to get into the spirit of things and imagine christmas that little bit better.
mum and dad this is just for you! old brother nick from our ward sends his love - and of course he had to be the one running the fruit stall - nobody else is nearly as qualified as him to do so. the fruit was perfect and up to the usual standard we would expect from him, and he even gave us some freebies to take home afterwards. his wife put the whole thing together and deserves all the credit... it was incredible. wish you were here to share it with us!!
