~Company over for dinner in December~

In December we had an all-day work day in our church. A bunch of us showed up and we spent the day...Scraping the walls (long story =), painting the walls an aqua blue, washing LOTS of chairs, then scrubbing the floor, and some of the ladies decorated the church for Christmas too.  We had a great day and Jesus helped us get a lot done!
Our family got home from that work day at 6:00 on Saturday evening.  (Phillip and I had been up since 2:30 A.M. that morning...so We were EXHAUSTED!)
But...I couldn't go to bed yet, for I was to have 13 guests over the next day for Sunday dinner.  I, who am normally a PLANNER, hadn't had time to purchase the food yet, let alone get it ready.
So, my sweetheart ran out the door to go get the groceries, while Sarah and Kimberly helped me get the kids bathed and ready for bed, and the house semi-cleaned, and some of the food started, etc.
My LIFE SAVER was that our company wasn't coming until around 3:00 P.M. the next afternoon.  Jesus helped us get everything pretty much done by the time they came. =)
~I was Happy to get to use my Christmas china again (my birthday gift my first birthday here in Colombia...2006).~

~My table...actually 3 plastic tables put together. =)
I didn't have a tablecloth to fit these...until Kimberly thought of my dark Grey material that I had purchased and we have used as a PHOTO BACKGROUND for MANY pictures that we have taken!
Kimberly ran and got this grey material and it fit my 3 tables Perfectly!  YEA!
(It might not have had the 7" drop, Moma, but hey, at least it hung past the table edge on all sides. =)~

~My centerpiece.~

~A Closer look at my Christmas china.~

~We put the table for the 8 children upstairs on our roof/outside porch.~

~Fun Christmasy paper plates I found for them, so I didn't have to wash MORE dishes. ;-)~

~We had Mr. Luciano and Mrs. Doris, and their family over.
They just recently got 2 new granddaughters.
Mrs. Doris is holding little Ashley, and Mr. Luciano with their other granddaughter little Melanie (named after Melanie Smith.)~

~We were wall-to wall people...but we had a great afternoon. =)~

~Sitting down to eat dinner. ~

 ~The plate of food.  I also served Autumn Chopped salad, my french bread, iced tea (Sweetened of course, IS THERE ANY OTHER KIND??? =) and sort of a banana pudding idea, with fresh strawberries added. Thank the Lord, they really enjoyed my food. =D~

 

 ~Some of us ladies played Guess Who.~

~Mrs. Doris had Mary hold little Melanie for this picture. By the look on little Melanie's face... I don't think she thought it was too good of an idea.  Ha!  (These days, Mary loves to change her clothes as often as possible.  Here she has half of them off already.) ~

~All the men (plus our little neighbor Nicolas)~

~All us ladies (plus Elijah=).
We had a wonderful afternoon together!
We're trying to get in ALL the fun memories we can with our Colombian friends, for soon our days to live in Colombia will end.  We get choked up just thinking about it!~