Welcome Home Party

This Sunday we had a wonderful "Welcome Home" party for my oldest who just got back from the Philippines serving a mission. She told about her experiences and my girls and I sang "Amazing Grace" acapella in our church service. That was beautiful and fun for us. We then had most of my siblings and their families come over to the house for lunch.

We had so many blessings. The weather was almost t-shirt weather in mid December. We had left over cookies and wassail from the food bank grand opening. We froze it after the opening and so we didn't have to bake. The potatoes for the potato salad and turkey soup were donated, the stew, rolls, salads, drinks, meat, cheese, chips and the turkey for the soup were also donated. I spent about $50 in all and ended up sending food home with about everyone that came. We fed over 60. I had three friends bring over platters of food in the morning to help out. I am blessed with good friends.

I am continually amazed at how wonderfully kind God is to me. I had such a wonderful day and enjoyed the weather so much. Many of my siblings drove 3-5 hours to support my oldest. She was so grateful and felt so supported. She did a wonderful job on her review of her time in the Philippines and I had no idea of the trials she suffered. We have another visit with a specialist on Friday.

I was grateful that I was able to have everything ready so that we could eat when we arrived home. I turned on the wassail to boil a few hours earlier in the pressure cooker and then turned it off and left the soup and stew on low cooking while we were gone. I rolled the meat while a bit frozen and cut the cheese that morning. The cookies were on plates inside gallon Ziploc bags and set out the night before. The chip bowls held the chips in bags until that morning and were set up the night before as well.

I bought several card tables and banquet tables over the years at second hand stores. We used those to eat and put the food on. For table clothes, I bought a bolt of decorative Naugahyde used to cover card tables. I have recovered my card tables a few times but they continue to get dinged and scratched as they get borrowed and moved. So, I cut the fabric and use it as table clothes so that they all match. It works well, I wash it and roll it back onto the bolt after each use.

The tables, chairs and clothes were also set up the night before. It made the day run smoothly and I could enjoy it not having to worry about set up and for clean up, I kept all the Ziploc bags and sent home all the food with everyone so I ended up with a little salad, soup and bread for the next days dinner.

As you can guess having read about my busy week, I was very glad to have the week over. We did have a few overnight guest which was fun but we were sad they arrived late so we didn't get to enjoy much visiting time. I am looking forward to a calmer holiday season after our upcoming busy weekend this weekend. We are headed up for a Dr. visit, dance competition and a concert this weekend and come back to sing on Sunday in our Christmas Choir program. We also have one in the nutcracker this week and next and band concerts this week.

I am pondering if I should write my Christmas letter...... Last year it took me 10 months to get it sent. :-)

One day at a time..... May today be one wonderful day!