Banquetting Basement

A banquet in the basement? And why not? Surely we can do something to transform the ho-hum basement and make it passable for a nice Christmas dinner for our church family. The challenge is always when someone says that it can't be done. I say that there has got to be a way! Well, our church family does sooooooo much for us throughout the year, that we wanted to do something special for them at Christmas. As the pastor's family, we do it all and this is our gift to each of them! This truly is a family affair. We decorate to the extreme, fancy up the tables, cook a meal to die for and then serve. When the dinner is over, we then make everyone go home and we do the cleaning and washing of the many pots and pans and silverware. I hope you enjoy the pictorial run of start to finish. Yes, we are positively exhausted when we are finished and we can hardly walk on our feet anymore, but it is definitely a good kind of tired! Below is pictured two separate hostess gifts that I received this year. Thank you, Dr. Kellogg, for the box of specialty chocolates and nuts. They are sooo good! And thank you, Linda, for your thoughtfulness in the gift of the rose. It's beautiful! The next couple of pictures are the before pictures of the basement in the parsonage.

Mark is growling me for interrupting his "wall building" to "SMILE" for the camera. All in good humor of course. BTW, we use unprinted newspaper, intentionally crinkled to create walls and rooms out of the one big room. And of course, you don't want to serve a nice dinner and see the nasty pots and pans stacked in the kitchen. We close off the kitchen and the church ladies are NOT allowed in there on that night!! Some try, but we chase them out!

Little Miss is in on the action!

The next several pictures are the construction of our gingerbread house. We used lots of cardboard.

YUK! I hope the "boss" remembers to do something about that ceiling tile!

Daryl and Rob helped me make enough gingerbread men cookies so that one could be set at every place setting. We made over 80 cookies. It was a lot of work! I couldn't have done it without my guys!

This was our theme this year.

The next photos are of the finished gingerbread house many, many hours later.

Look's like the "boss" remembered to fix that ceiling tile! Much better!!

This was the inside of the gingerbread house. This would be the opposite wall from the "house" wall. It's a little blurry, but you can see that it was like walking into a room in any home. It was warm and cozy. The overhead lights were out and the only lights were two pole lamps, one in the house and one out, and the candlelight and little white lights used in the decorations on the tables.

A table ready for the dinner to begin.

This is the place setting. The menu was printed on the placemats. The dinner meal included turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravies, sweet potato casserole, corn, green beans, potato rolls w/honey butter followed by pumpkin pie for dessert. No one left hungry!

Becca Faust with Nevaeh

Fillin' those plates!

Patiently waiting.

This is my sweetheart, Ashlynn. In the next picture that follows, she is showing you what to do with the pole. You were wondering, right?

These pics are "in" the house while people are eating and some are out getting their food.

Steve and Leslie Blackwelder

This is Frostin' Austin. He's really COOL!

Brie and Ethan. Best buds!