Christmas Tea

Saturday afternoon, I attended our church's annual Christmas tea. 

From the moment you walk into the room you are surrounded by Christmas elegance. All eighty tables that fill the space are beautifully decorated by a different lady from our church. 

Each table is unique and special.

Oh, how I just LOVE walking around the room, admiring all the lovely Christmas decor. It truly is a beautiful sight to behold! Last year was the first year my mom and I decorated a table. We really enjoyed doing it, so this year we decided...why not do two.  We needed a little extra help though, so we recruited my Grandma to decorate with us as well. It truly became a family affair;)

The first table we did was a replica of last years. We went with our whimsical gingerbread theme again, and had lots of fun decorating it!

The second table was much more elegant in nature. 

We used my Grandma's beautiful china which has the prettiest winter landscape on it. My friend, Melanie let us borrow her lovely lantern, which served as the perfect centerpiece. 

And even though this was an afternoon fit for a lady, many gentlemen were on hand as well. These men graciously gave up their time on a Saturday afternoon to volunteer at the tea as servers. 

My sweet Daddy and brother Tim were two of those volunteers!

I was so proud of them;)

Of course, the food was divine...

 BUT the company was even better!

This year, gathered around our table, was my three sisters, my mom, grandma, friend Juli and her daughter Leah!

We had THE BEST time!

After our afternoon of elegance was over, it was time to race home, throw on those jeans, grab that white elephant gift, and head on over to our Sunday School class Christmas party.

This year, we decided to go with an "ugly sweater" theme for the party!

 Shane and I didn't really have an "ugly" sweater sitting in our closet, so I thought it would be fun   to make us matching reindeer sweatshirts instead;)

Some of our friends though, did a fantastic job coming up with really great attire for this theme!

Our good friend, Reggie literally had an entire Christmas mantle sewn onto the front of his sweater. 

It was AWESOME!

He won the best sweater for the guys...

And his wife, Jessica won for the girls. Her sweater was great too, but I must say...even in that ugly sweater, my sweet friend still managed to look ADORABLE!!;)

Our good friend Bryan, did an incredible job being the MC for the night. 

He kept us in stitches the entire evening!

Seriously, I haven't laughed that hard in a L-O-N-G time! It was GREAT!

And as I looked around the room that night, I couldn't help but pause and thank the Lord for giving us  such an amazing church family and blessing us with so many wonderful friends!

It's truly is a privilege to "do life" with these sweet families!