Riverview Women's Christmas Dinner 2025

My mom and I were hoping to only have to decorate one table for the Women's Christmas Dinner, but that is never gonna work out. We have too many people we love and want to hang out with. 

I decided to change up things...the last couple years I've used my Old Country Rose place settings and then the centerpiece has been a nativity scene. This time around I decided to use my Let It Snow snowman dishes. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I had 3 snowman in the middle. They were surrounded by snow and I have fairy lights under the snow. It was really cozy looking! 

I did have to go buy red chargers, but I was able to pick those up at The Dollar Tree. Each table hostess is supposed to provide a gift for each of her ladies. I ended up getting some cute dish towels that I hung on the back of the chairs...you can see them in the first picture. I also picked up these cute red reusable coffee cups and chocolate caramel snowman. 

My sweet man is the one that leads all the men volunteers for the evening. It's a stressful evening, but he does a great job! 

Pa was serving in the section that Ga-Ga & I were in. 

My mom's table looked so pretty. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of it. 

The super sad part of the evening was that Ella wasn't feeling well. She had a headache, but she tried to push through. She got all ready and rode with us to the church, but then she couldn't even make it in the building she felt so awful. Michael sat with her for a bit to see if just resting would help, but it most definitely wasn't helping. I ended up taking her home. Justine came with me so he could comfort her. When we got to the house he had to carry her inside since she could barely move. I ran in the house and got a bowl for her and just a few seconds after Justine set Ella on the couch she threw up. We stayed for a bit so I could help her get cleaned up and changed into jammies and then we headed back to the church. 

I love that some of the guys from youth group volunteer....Owen ended up being the lead for the buffet line. He did a great job! 

My table was supposed to be full, but we ended up with having two empty seats. One was Ella's and the other was for my friend Stefanie who ended up not being able to make it. Left to right is....Mary, Addison, Christina, (Caleb is Christina's son and he was volunteering as a server), Anna, me and my friend Melissa. It was Melissa's first time coming to the Christmas Dinner and I hope she's able to make it again. She had a great time!  

 

This was the first year that Zeke wasn't hanging out with the kids or at home...he's such a handsome server! 

The dinner was yummy and the desserts never disappoint! 

The person that was supposed to speak that night ended up having to back out so the Women's Ministry Leader, Gail, stepped in and spoke for the evening. The whole night was beautiful and fun. 

Women's Christmas Dinner 2024!

The Women's Christmas Dinner fell on Friday, December 6th. My mom and I were both asked to lead tables again this year. Because we all needed to be there at different times we ended up taking 3 vehicles to church. Michael took Jack in the truck and left first to go pick up Justine. They need to get to church early enough to set up for the men volunteers. Owen needed to come home early from the event since he worked the next day so he and Zeke were gonna take the Ford Fusion. Ella and I didn't need to be at the event until later so we were going to take the van. When it came time for Owen to leave he couldn't get the Ford Fusion to start. Unfortunately the last time Jack drove it he forgot to turn off the dash cam so it sucked the battery dry. Here I was already dressed for the evening and I was having to help teach Owen how to jump start the car. Plus I had to block the neighbors driveway in order to jump his car. It was dead dead and took me revving the engine for about 5 minutes before the car would finally turn over. I had never even open the hood on our 2023 Honda Odyssey before and once I got his car started I couldn't figure out how to close the hood. I was dropping it just like I would for cars we've had in the past and it wouldn't close. I ended up having to ask Google and the trick was you had to drop it from at least 12 inches where I was just dropping it from around 3 - 6 inches. It just wasn't enough force. 

I decided to use my Old Country Rose place setting again. I love any chance I get to use it!  

I basically did the exact same place setting I did last year with the exception of the gifts for the ladies being a little bit different this time. I asked Michael's cousin to make the ornaments again, but this time I had them make 4 different kinds and each kind had a corresponding hymn that was printed in the background. You can see the ornament in the above pictures with the wise men on the camels. They turned out so beautiful! 

 

Michael is the one that heads up the men volunteers and my boys always volunteer, but this was Justine's first year volunteering. Ella had been wanting a new dress for the occasion so we went out shopping the day before. We ended up finding this dress at TJ Maxx...so pretty! 

By the time Ella and I got there the boys were all busy with different tasks so I didn't get a lot of pictures of them. 

Mom was leading a table and helping at the registration table. It was too much though...she said she barely felt like she was able to talk to the ladies at her table. :( 

Pa was also helping out the guys by serving. 

These are the 3 guys that made all the wonderful food that we ate that night. It was all so yummy! 

Just outside the kitchen in the hallway was where everything food related was set up...all the salads and desserts got plated out here. 

Here's the registration tables and in the background you can see one of the buffet lines there were actually two to help all the ladies get through faster! 

We sang some Christmas Carols prior to be dismissed to get in the buffet line. 

My precious girly! 

Mariah McCleary was our speaker and she did a great job. She just has a way with words! 

The food was I think the best we've had ever, the music was so festive and the speaker was encouraging. This is always one of my favorite nights and it definitely didn't disappoint. 

At the end of the evening we stayed around to help clean up for a bit. I was having Jack and Justine empty the garbage and because of their hats like looked like festive helpers. After that we had to get Justine home so he could get to sleep since he had a wrestling tournament the next day. 

Women's Christmas Dinner 2023!

The Women's Christmas Dinner was on Friday, December 1st. Earlier in the day we had stopped by the Eye Dr. to pick up Ella's new RX glasses. She had been complaining about it being hard for her to see so we got her eyes checked and her RX had changed to the point where she should probably wear glasses all the time. She had glasses before, but they were only for reading. She barely remembered to wear them though. She liked her frames so much we brought those back in and they put her new RX lenses in them. 

I think she looks adorable with glasses! 

This time around Ga-Ga & I hosted tables separately since we wanted to invite so many people to sit with us. 

I really wanted to use my Royal Albert Old Country Rose china that Ellen gave me. It was a bit different from a traditional Christmas place setting, but I think it turned out beautiful. 

I already had the china, flatware, sparkling cider glasses and the chargers. I did have to use the church's water glasses, but I only had to buy 2 things to finish off the table setting...the doily and the napkins. 

I borrowed this huge Nativity Set from my parents to use as my centerpiece. All the gold accents went so well with the china. 

Since the theme of the table was a nativity I wanted to buy each lady a nativity ornament. Back in November, one of Michael's cousins posted on FB how they were starting business making things out of wood. I message her my idea and sent pictures of ornaments that I liked. She actually created these ornaments for me and they were exactly what I had in mind. She even gift wrapped each of them. So perfect! 

Look at these handsome guys all ready to serve! 

Ella wore one of my dresses that I wore to the Women's Christmas dinner in 2019....it's so crazy to see her wearing my clothes now! Just for the record she is not taller than me...yet...she was wearing heels in this picture! :) 

Love this picture of Ga-Ga & Pa. Pa got to be the one to pray over us ladies and our food! 

Ella decided to straighten her hair for this event. Curly or straight hair...doesn't matter...she's a beauty! 

Handsome dudes...even though they don't like dressing up they sure do look good! 

I love seeing the youth volunteer at church! 

Christina and her beautiful girls! They were so excited to get to dress up all fancy for the evening! 

This was the first time the girls attend the actually event. In the past they've just hung out in the Kid's Church room having fun. Love seeing their personalities coming out! 

Love this lady who's like a sister to me! 

Ga-Ga's table was full! 

L-R

MJ, Ga-Ga, Denise, Cathie, Sara, Addison, Ella and Anna. 

My table was almost full...unfortunately Miss Ruth wrote down the wrong day so she thought the event was on Saturday night not Friday night. I called her to see if she was on her way, but she had just stepped out of the shower. I felt so bad! 

L-R

Christina, Me, Michelle, Mary, Stefanie, Marci & Jan. 

Caleb even signed up to volunteer and help. I love that even though they don't go to church at our church he was fine with just jumping right in. 

It was a beautiful evening filled with yummy food, fun fellowship and singing Christmas Carols. We got to hear from Kent Hope and how they are impacting the community and helping Women get off the streets. It's so great to partner with programs like that in our area. 

Jan actually works at the water district with Michael and Marci is her daughter....look at that matching hair! It was so fun to get to spend time with them. 

The girls had a blast with all the seasoned ladies at Ga-Ga's table. It was truly such a fun and treasured time!