christmas ladies night out

Last night, I taught the holiday class in Brigham City.  Ace Hardware had a "Ladies Night" and I was asked to teach Holiday Tips on Decorating, entertaining, shopping, organizing, you name it.  I had a blast!  It was just a lot of fun women, excited to be there and to talk about Christmas!  There were over 400 women in attendance.  The food was catered.  There were crafts and gifts and door prizes and all sorts of fun giveaways, including 2 KitchenAid mixers, pots and pans, a turkey fryer, alllllll sorts of prizes!  It was loud, it was crowded and crazy!  But, it was organized so well and very fun!

I'd spent the day playing with my Christmas decorations, going through the bins and gathering things, then I challenged myself to set four tablescapes from the random things that I'd gathered.  It was like play for me!  I always love getting all of the decorations out!  That's as fun as Christmas morning itself! I have 13 bins in the family room downstairs that I'm going to go through this weekend.  This morning, after being totally exhausted at the end of last night, I'm not quite ready to decorate yet, but I am going to spend a day going through things and doing some dejunking and organizing of my holiday decor.

Carol was a life-saver on this class.  She gathered some of her things too and we did much of it together.  It was fun to have her things, as well as mine!  She loves Christmas as much as I do!  Before the class, we went to a very late lunch in Brigham City.  After we stopped at Taco Bell for a drink and then came home and hit the hot tub, while we told Doug all about the evening.  It was a lonnnnnng day for my foot and I could not wait to get into that hot water and soak!  My foot throbbed all night long because it had been such a long day and I have lost my voice a bit today from all the talking, but it was a very fun night, worth the effort!

Carol took a few photos with my phone during the class...

I shared ideas and taught that you don't have to go out and spend a lot of money, but it's simple to use what you have to make things festive and fun!

The hot chocolate bar is one of my favorite things about winter!

 I decided to do four tablescapes on one round banquet table to show just how simple and easy it is to dress up a table!  

There were gift basket ideas, decorating ideas, organizing ideas.  I love Christmas!

 

Nothing like trying to teach how to fold a fun Christmas tree napkin and not being able to fold it!  We all got a laugh and decided that folding things upside down on my chest in not the way for them to see is not the way to do it.   The table works much better!

 Carol got a few of me and I had to laugh because in every one of them, my hands are just "talking"!  ha! The ladies were great!  There was so much excitement in the air! 

Ironically, I came home and look at my Thanksgiving home and I'm not quite ready to let it go!  So, I'll go through my bins this weekend and start slowly next week.  I asked Doug where the main tree is and he's going to have to get it out for me before I can begin anyway.  So, it's all good!  I'm just loving the holiday that is now and getting a teeny bit excited about Christmas at the same time! 

Life is good!