Happy Birthday Relief Society!

This year the Relief Society lessons and meetings will be focused on the history of the Relief Society. This past Tuesday, we had our RS Birthday dinner. We talked about the past General RS Presidents and the story of the very first RS meeting.

I gathered all things old, or at least old looking, and rummaged through my house until I found enough 8x10 frames to put all the past RS President's pictures in.

This is an adorable VT handout about how the Relief Society was organized after the "pattern of the priesthood". Here's the blog I found it on and here's the actual printable. It's so cute. I made up several for my VT ladies.

The menu that evening was lasagna, salad, bread and birthday cake.

Simple, but yummy.

The sisters had plenty of time to eat and visit...

as we desperately tried to get the technical part of the program working.

After about 40 minutes, we decided to continue... video or not.

For our program, we had Emma Smith come talk to us. She shared some of her experiences and stories of being the first RS president.

Next, we wanted to play this video, ("Live Up to Your Privileges")but with our technical difficulties (getting the computer to talk to the projector) we ended up sharing it as an audio.

I thought this was a funny picture..... the past interfacing with the present. :)

In closing, Jessica Whiting (Emma) shared her personal history and testimony of the Relief Society. She talked about how when she turned 18, she was thrilled and excited to come into the program. She also talked about her early RS college experiences, her RS experiences as a young wife and as a mother. She moved around A LOT and the connecting factor in all of their moves was the Relief Society. The Relief Society was always there to welcome, to be-friend and to provide relief.

I loved hearing Jessica's testimony and history. I can attest to the things she shared. I too am thankful for the Relief Society program. I have been on the receiving end of much "relief" at times. I am proud to be a part of a world-wide sisterhood. I love the Relief Society!

Super Saturday... on a Tuesday.

Recently our ward had a "Super Saturday" ....on a Tuesday.

Our regularly scheduled Tuesday was the best option, since the building was booked every weekend for the month of October.

The theme for the evening was, "Centering Christ in our Holidays". Being on the Relief Society Meeting board, I was volunteered to give the lesson that evening.

Probably because I had expressed my feelings about Easter and talked about the new Easter traditions we created as a family.

I prayed about what to say, for weeks. Even so, the day of, I was VERY nervous. I gathered a few things as visual aids to give ideas on how to center Christ in our Holidays.

I started out by sharing some things I had learned in my Positive Parenting class that morning. I was feeling inspired to share, although the topic didn't seem to have a connection.... pride.

I went on to talk about my experience with Easter. Going from NO Easter Bunny as a child, to the Easter Bunny visiting my children, back to having the Easter Bunny "hop on by". I read my blog post I made 2 years ago.

I told them about our Easter traditions; Jerusalem dinner and "Easter in an Egg".

I also shared about other things I've done to center Christ in my holidays....

I collect nativity scenes. One of my favorites is this Fisher Price nativity. I love it because the kids can play with it, interact and retell the story of Jesus' birth.

The pillowcase with my name was a tradition we had as children. We would put our Christmas pillowcases on at the beginning of December. When we would see our pillow we were to think of Christ and how we could serve one another.

The heart shaped pillow is an idea I read on a blog. During the month of February, you take turns passing around the "Love Pillow". When you do a service for someone in your family, you put the pillow on their bed. Then they have the next 24 hours to perform a service for someone else in the family. The "Love Pillow" gets passed from one bed to the next all month long.

The stocking garland is another new tradition I'd like to start in my family. Basically it's a advent or countdown to Christmas. Each day a slip of paper is drawn out of the stocking and then our family does what it says. Each day we focus on Christ with our activity for that day.

Next, we moved on to dinner and crafts.... or "gifts of love" to stay within our theme. :) We enjoyed a huge variety of homemade soups and rolls. One of the most popular soups of the evening; Butternut Squash.

There were several wood projects; temple pictures, family photos, and holiday blocks. Also available; cloth headbands, glass etching, embroidered nativity and decorative jars/cans.

If you're curious about what projects we did, you can click on this link

http://2010giftsoflove.blogspot.com/

I got to be in charge of the glass etching station. I pre-cut family names onto contact paper, using a Cricut Thank you very much Karen. Then we carefully placed the contact paper stencil name on to the bottom of a glass pan. Trying to get it straight with no wrinkles was the hardest part of the whole thing!Then we applied "Armor Etch" cream to the name stencil, waited 5 minutes and Voila!.... a pan that can be easily identified at ward functions. Many made them as Christmas gifts.

Here's the poem to include, when giving as a gift...

Have you ever been asked by a very good friend,
For one of your favorite dishes to lend?

And when it was time for the dish to come back,
A strange looking object was returned in a sack!

Now I can help so your friends you won’t blame,
I have this nice dish that now bears your name.

So lend it or take it to any old place,
Your name you will always be able to trace.

It was a successful evening.

Many "gifts of love" (crafts) were completed and lots of fun and talking too.