Ready, set, let's go!
I absolutely love hosting parties at our home. We have the room, we have a great set up in our basement and we have teenagers we are able to "employ" to "work" the party. Keeping Emily focused on her job was a challenge as she clearly inherited the gift to gab from me!
Friday: Velocity (High School) Leader Christmas party
The tables and chairs were set up (4 tables, 32 chairs!), the turkey, stuffing and gravy were heating up as people started arriving! Each person brings either a side dish or desert and of course, a White Elephant gift! The food was amazing and being able to sit at a table with seven other people who you typically see in spurts because we are interacting with students, was priceless. What I also love about this group is that we range in ages from 20 something to 40 something. Some of us are too close to being in the 50 something category but we won't go there.... we'll enjoy the 40 something category! We all come from different walks of life but the one thing we have in common is we love God and we love high school students. I know I speak for others as well when I say that 1) I am continually amazed that God would use me to lead students 2) I learn so much from students and to see their passion for God and want to grow in their relationship with Him is amazing 3) To walk along side students in their journey of life with their struggles, their fears, their mistakes, their successes, their failures, their smiles, their love of mission trips, watching them grow from Jr High students to watching them graduate and much more. So many things that will literally bring you to your knees with joy and sadness, none of us would trade or walk away from. Each leader, I know, would say that through the good and the bad, the smiles and the tears, we wouldn't miss any of it!!
Sorry, got off on that little tangent, back to the party and now on to the White Elephant exchange! We gather our chairs and sit in a circle with all the gifts in the middle of the floor. We each draw a number starting with 1 and ending at 25 and await our turn to choose or gift or steal someone elses! This game was going along nicely until Zach arrived late and as the last person was to go says, "will this make a difference" and pulls out a Starbucks gift card he brought for the game...... the entire room went silent... what had been a rather nice game suddenly turned. The love of coffee in this group is unbelievable. Adam and I were scheming on how we could trade/steal/beg/borrow to get the gift we wanted and that Starbucks card turned us into evil/manipulative people! Thank goodness it was frozen after three turns!
The party that was to end at 10pm lasted well past 11pm and honestly, could have gone longer. Such great people, such fun, so many laughs and as I reflect on the night, it makes me realize that we shouldn't wait until the Christmas party to get together as a group..... I see another party being planned in my head!
Saturday: My women's bible study Christmas party
I am fortunate to be part of women's bible study that is truly a family. I believe we've been doing studies together for 3 years. I say this unknowingly because it feels like we've been together for years! We came together as a very mixed group in ages from twenties to sixties and everywhere in between! What a blessing it is to be doing life with women of all ages and life experiences!
One of the ladies in our group is a teacher in Milan, Mi. who spoke to the school guidance counselor about our group adopting a family for Christmas. We were fortunate to receive a family with 5 children! We got their "wish list" and the excitement began! E-mails going between the group of "I'll take this child" "I've got mom covered" "let's add some family gifts also", etc. On Saturday we arrived at Elise's home to begin our wrapping of gifts! Listening to the chatter, laughter and the excitement felt in the room was magical! We were all beaming just picturing their faces Christmas morning! The parents decided that they didn't want their children to know about the gifts and plan on putting the them under the tree to awaken to Christmas morning!! I can only imagine the looks on their faces!! Every item on the family's wish list was purchased and then some!! Mom, Dad and all five children will have everything they wished for!!
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| away we go! |
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| wrapping delight |
We loaded the cars and headed to the home of our adopted family. We stopped at Bob Evans and picked up dinner and pie! Dad had taken the kids for a drive because of the surprise so we were greeted by mom who is such a sweet lady and couldn't believe the amount of gifts bestowed upon her family. Clearly overcome with emotion, we all hugged her, told her what a blessing it was to each of us to do this and invited the family to Christmas Eve service. We then left and headed to our group dinner! When we arrived at the restaurant, Valerie told us that the Dad had called her, overcome with emotion himself and said that this was more than they could ever had imagined and how thankful that they were. We all smiled, knowing we had been just as blessed by this event! I know I speak for us all by saying, I can't imagine life without this group of ladies and I'm incredibly thankful for what they mean to me!
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| Thankful for these ladies and the ones that couldn't make it! |
Sunday: Three parties in one day! Wha hoo!
What better way to start off your Sunday morning than with 6th, 7th and 8th graders than lots and lots of sugar, games, music and overall fun?!! Our junior high group at church is called Rustproof and I have the honor of leading a group of 8th grade girls who I've had since they were in 6th grade! It has been such a pleasure watching them grow, change, mature, struggle with life, etc. I love each of them as if they were my own and tend to fuss at them from time to time like they are! Unfortunately for them I'm not one of the cool high school leaders but they continue to return week after week so it works!!
We left church and headed home for:
Rustproof Leader Christmas party!!
Thankfully we had Friday night to use as a guide for this leader's party! We had 28-29 leaders descend upon our home with appetizers, sides and deserts! Again with our turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, we enjoyed spending some quality time with each other that we typically don't get to have. The great thing about Rustproof is we have adult leaders and high school leaders. To listen to the high school leaders talk about what an impact it's been on them to lead is so nice. To be in the midst of their own high school struggles, peer issues, etc, they have a heart to make a difference in a younger students life! I can't tell you what a heart warming thing this is to see and to hear. We had our White Elephant game and this was a bit intense! There were definitely "prized" gifts people wanted and many were "stolen" from each other until they were frozen! Who knew that someone elses "stuff" could be anothers treasure!
And then it was time to head to:
Velocity High School Christmas party!!
This was the only Sunday in the month of December that the high school group met. It was another party filled with lots and lots of sugar in the form of cookies and hot chocolate! There was a DJ, games, worship and a talk. There are a couple of hundred students that come to Velocity on Sunday nights. Why this is an amazing thing is because these students have to want to come. It's every Sunday evening so there isn't a parent saying, "come on, we're going to church!" They want to come and learn about this guy we call God and how He can help them through their life filled with doubt, peer pressure, confusion, happiness, accomplishments, etc. Tim Tebow his huge right now. You've heard about him unless you live under a rock, and in that case, you probably wouldn't be reading this.... Tim is vocal about his faith in God and for a high schooler to see that makes a huge impact when it's so easy to fall off track. I've been fortunate to lead a group of 11th grade girls that I've lead since they were in 7th grade! I'm thankful to be part of each of their lives and to hopefully make a small impact. I tell people that I've learned more from them than they will ever know and I'm forever thankful that God put our group together! It was no mistake!
I will finish up with a video I took. I was talking to someone, turned around and a line dance was taking place.... only in our church!! I will say that although the parties were fantastic and spending time with other leaders was great, the end was the best. When I got home Eric was reading in the living room. I sat down and we started talking. One by one, each girl came downstairs at different times. We ended up having great conversations and laughs! I remember thinking, "This is what it's all about. Family" So from my own family to my church family, I am forever thankful for each of you and what you bring to my life. I am a better person because of each one of you.
