Enrichment Night

So, I am finally posting about the Christmas Enrichment Meeting from last week! It was a beautiful evening, and I am so happy with how everything turned out! The women absolutely loved it, and I had several of them tell me that it was a perfect evening, and it couldn't have been any better.I could tell that everyone was enjoying themselves, and feeling the Christmas Spirit.





The dinner turned out really well, despite all our worries, so if anyone ever wants to have a pasta buffet, I can tell you how to do it! I think our Holiday punch was almost the biggest hit of the night. It was slush...who doesn't love slush? It was very refreshing, and I think every last drop was slurped up! Yum!

I took pictures, but not as many as I thought. my memory card was full, so I kept having to delete pictures to make room for more. I really wish I could have gotten the full effect of the way it looked, because I thought it looked so pretty. I just love Christmas lights.



This is how we displayed all the envelopes that we had everyone's compliments in. We had 3 trees full of them. At the end of the night, we had everyone go find their envelope! It was really fun. There was a girl who was baptized not long ago, and she was standing by one of the trees looking at it. I asked her if she needed help finding her envelope. She said "Oh, I don't have one. I was looking for someone else's for them." I said, "Yes you do have one. Here it is" And I handed it to her. Her whole face lit up! She was so happy! That made me feel really good about deciding to do this whole comliment thing in the first place. I know for some it was a hassle to gather them all up, and put forth all the work to decorate the envelopes, and type up the compliments. Some felt it was a lot of "extras" that weren't necessary. But in that one moment, it made it all totally and completely worth it for me. That one woman felt special and loved. That was the whole point of the entire evening. She needed to know that she was loved, just like all of us do. We are all daughters of God. We are all sisters. We are all special, important and wonderful, and we all can touch each other's lives in ways that we may not ever know. Going the extra mile to get that message across was very much worth it to me.
It was a wonderful evening.

The program that night ended with a song that is my most favorite song this time of year. "A Long Time Ago" by Denise Orgill Ferguson. I have a story of how this song came to mean so much to me. Maybe 5 or 6 years ago, my ward in Indiana had a combined ward enrichment program similar to what we did. A girl wih a beautiful, crystal clear, angelic voice sang this song. I had never heard it before, and could not get it out of my head for a long time. The spirit was so strong when she sang it, that she got choked up during it and couldn't even sing part of it. I asked her later on, what the name of the song was and she told me, but she couldn't remember who it was by. I searched high and low for the song, online, at the church bookstore, and couldn't find it.

Two years ago, right before Christmas I miscarried. I was about 10 weeks along, and we were going to Blanding for Christmas, and we were planning on telling our families our news for Christmas. We weren;t leaving until Christmas Eve, which was a Saturday. The Sunday before, I started to miscarry. I opted to have a d&c so that I would be able to travel and not be worrying about all that goes along with a miscarriage. It was hard to call our families and tell them we had good news, but now we don't. Anyway...it was an emotional time for me due to this, and I was still very emotional about the loss of my brother only about 15 months before.

We were sitting in church on Christmas Day listening to the ward choir's musical program. All of a sudden, my long searched for song was being sung! I was so overcome with emotion that I started sobbing. I couldn't control myself no matter how hard I tried! I felt so embarrassed! Tony's mom was sitting by me and was all trying to comfort me, and I felt really dumb, but I could not stop. It was almost horrible really. Anyway...I was able to get a copy of the music from Tony's cousin who was the choir director, and I was very happy! I would love to sing this song myself, but it gets a bit high, and I don't think I could do it justice. I asked a lady in our ward to sing it special for our enrichment night, and she had actually sung it before, so it was perfect!

Here are the words.

A long time ago a mother lay by the side of a tiny king.
The wisemen would come, the shepherds kneel, and the angels in heav'n would sing.

Hosanna, alleluia, for unto you this night
A babe is born upon the earth to bring the world his light.

A long time ago a perfect man walked the shores of Galilee.
He taught men of faith to forgive, to love, and bade them "Come unto me."

Hosanna, alleluia, how great were all His days
For he had come to show to all the straight and narrow way.

A long time ago a mother knelt by the cross of the chosen king.
The soldiers were there, men mocked His throne, and the angels wept at the scene.

Hosanna, alleluia, how much he must have cared.
For all our sins, he freely bore and hung and suffered there.

And not long ago a mother knelt by the side of her child each night.
She taught her to pray, to worship God, and to follow the Savior's light.

Hosanna, alleluia, now when each day is through,
the love I have for Him above, I'll teach my child, to you.