Ladies Christmas Coffee & Cookie Exchange

Merry (day after!) Christmas!!! We had a very nice holiday... sweet service at chruch, a wonderful gathering of family (pretty soon we'll need to rent a banquet hall, I tell ya!) and just a fun relaxing day. I may have another post coming with more on our personal celebration of Jesus' birthday but today I wanted to share about a church ladies' fellowship. I really have one major reason for sharing... many of my friends are also in the ministry and we are ALWAYS looking for ideas to incorporate for our own churches!

This flyer/poster was  printed on festive paper.



For refreshemtns, the ladies brought their "specialties" so we ended up with a sausage roll, spinach roll, a few different cheese dips and other similar goodies, along with a couple different varieties of coffee and fancy creamers. I love love love flavored creamers. =)



We ate our snacks, and then I had a very short devotional. I won't include the entire thing but my theme was "Chilled but Filled". The basic idea was it's a cold, stressful, somtimes difficult time of year and if we don't avoid it on purpose, we'll be filled with many negative things. But with Christ's help we can be filled with a some wonderful things. Several Scripture verses contain the phrase "filled with" and it's a fun Bible study to do. I particulary liked the vereses dealing with being filled with "wonder and amazement" and "joy and peace". Of course, the way to ensure being "chilled but filled" with the good stuff and not the bad stuff is keep our personal devotional time with the Lord a priority, especially during a time to celebrate His birth, and by doing for others, which is part of why we gave a portion of the cookies from the exchange away (see flyer).

I gave each lady a little momento pertaining to the devotional theme. These pockets made from scrapbooking paper contain a hot cocoa packet and a chocolate dipped peppermint stir stick.



Next was a simple game. I had several gifts wrapped mulitple times (varying from 3 times to about 10). I stood by a CD player with Christmas songs playing while the ladies passed the gifts around in a circle. When the music stopped, whoever was holding a gift carefully unwrapped ONE layer of wrapping paper. If they revealed the box itself, they won the gift. If they revealed another layer of wrapping, the present stayed in rotation. It was fun and rawdy! The gifts were: several sets of inexpensive Christmas pot holders, a beautiful christmas candle (the kind with a reflective finish on the inside- LOVE those!), and a cute cookie platter.







At that point, we did the exchange. Everyone gets their empty tray/platter and we walk around the table, each taking the same amount of cookies until they are all gone. No picking and choosin' - we all leave with the same variety/quanitiy, and no hurt feelings. Of course, this year, we first made little goody boxes of cookies for a short list of people we thought needed some extra holiday cheer. Volunteers delivered the cookies with a beautiful Christmas card that all the ladies had signed.



I think it was fun and it wasn't a ton of work for just one person either. I am no great party planning myself but I know it's helpful to me when other share the details of their own events so hopefully, I gave you enough info to be useful!

Looking forward to another year to serve the King of Kings! ♥


Love,

"In His Steps" Ladies Luncheon

Banner / Cards on Each Table

Today, our church held a Ladies' Luncheon, with the theme of "In His Steps". We had almost 50 ladies come, and we had a great time. We ate a delicious meal... chicken malainiase, rigatoni with marinara, meatballs, greens, rolls and salad. For dessert, each table had a taramisu cake on a pedestal. My only disappointment over the event was that (once again) I didn't not think of pictures until the end. =( So sad about that. The decorations looked so pretty. I had even written "TAKE PICTURES" on my notes but... I was just too distracted. So here are a few to give you an idea:

 The cakes had molded pink chocolate high heels placed around them, with a super cute pink high heel on top. Here, obviously the heel was removed and the cake sliced up for serving. So use your imagination to picture what it originally looked like.

 The banner closely resembled the cards (pictured above, which were held in cute shoe photo holders on each table).

 And a giant 5 ft. tall pink high heel.

Also on the tables were favors at each seat: small clear high heels filled with pink candy, tied with either a pink or black ribbon and a verse attached:

 Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth. Psalm 86:11

After dessert, we had a group of sisters sing 3 beautiful songs centered on the theme of walking with the Lord:

Nothing Quite As Sweet

Each Step I Take

All the Way

The Weber Sisters did a lovely job. As they sang, one played the acoustic guitar and another played the violin. So pretty!

I gave away several prizes. Again, I wish I had pictures of the prizes; they were fabulous. For the highest high heel, a lady won an adorable apron that read "I'll Cook for Shoes". For the biggest shoe size, a lady won a copy of the book, In His Steps, a lady who happened to be wearing a pink shoe won a very cute tape dispenser in the shape of a shoe, and the lady with the oldest shoes on (which I was second place for!) won an under-the-bed shoe organizer. Then, I drew 2 random names: one won another copy of In His Steps and the other, who happened to be my mom, won the cute little shoe themed box from which I drew names.







Then we watched a sweet video made for the special moms of Harts Hill Baptist Church. This video was also shown on Sunday morning on Mother's Day. At the luncheon we also watched the blooper reel (which I did not upload to YouTube) and I gave copies to the moms with children in the video.



After one of our wonderful church ladies shared a testimony about the difference the Lord has made in her life, the Weber sisters sang one more song: Thirst for God

At this point, I introduced our terrific speaker, Mrs. Amy Vassak. Mrs. Vassak is a pastor's wife. Her husband and her began the Northeast Baptist Church of Danbury, CT 17 yrs. ago. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know her better and to hear the encouraging lesson she brought to us. I think all of us were helped and challenged in our personal walks with Christ.

I think the event turned out well. I myself enjoyed it and usually, I don't say that about things I organize! But with good food, great music and a funny edifying speaker, what else really matters? ;) I really hope to have more special events for the ladies in the future,

Love,