Relief Society Christmas Enrichment

As I mentioned before, the general theme for our stake is serving others and our quarterly enrichment activity included sharing our talents.

It was held at a sisters home, a Victorian design with lots of windows and a veranda. Electric candles were placed in every window. Small lit trees flanked the entry and a beautiful evergreen wreath over the bright red door. I used empty quart-sized canning jars, red tulle ribbons and tea-lights as luminaries lining the walkway. It looked inviting for a last minute, completely thrown together detail. My Enrichment leader plucked a gallon ziploc full of bright red crabapples (the size of cherries) off the culdesac tree, put them into small glass votives with a candle in the center. Cheap, easy - that's my kind of fancy decor. Did I bring my camera? Yes. Did I stop of five seconds to take a picture? No. Wish I did.

To organized our gift exchange, the sisters drew alphabet tiles (thanks to UpWords) and placed their gifts on the hearth before having a seat in the family room.

We had a wonderful talk from a visiting sister entitled “Then He Smiled at Me – Finding Joy Through Creating Lives of Beauty”.

“As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.”
“As you create beauty and as you are compassionate to others – God will encircle you in the arms of His love. Discouragement, inadequacy and weariness will give way to a life of meaning, grace and fulfillment.” *Elder Uchtdorf

After her remarks, it was time for delicious desserts and a service/talent white elephant exchange. The sisters came up with wonderful gifts or coupon that were wrapped: Quick breakfast goodies, homemade caramel corn, homemade soup and bread dinner, jalapeno jelly, handmade cards, fresh baked bread, a plumbing call, waffle kit, home canned sauerkraut, a haircut, digi-scrap or blog set-up, home organization, embroidery, babysitting, kitchen towel aprons, cheesecake from scratch, jar of brownie mix, snowflake I am a Child of God frame, custom vinyl lettering, lotions, a Santa pillow…. a wide variety of talents and opportunities of service.

I think the evening went well despite eleventh hour venue change and hopefully sisters will follow through on their obligations. I did and it was a great opportunity for me to share!

We also had a Sweets Swap. Ladies brought in three plates of Christmas goodies with the recipes attached and left with three different treats. Bake one item, get three free!

Now I have a few months to mull over what to do for the RS Birthday party in March! Lesson in March. Birthday Party in March. Miss Is Birthday in March. Wedding anniversary in March. Looks like I better get some sleep now.