The annual Rochelle and Carli Christmas bash...

Four years ago, Rochelle and I hosted a Christmas dinner party as a farewell to our dear friends, the DeBrys, who were moving to Idaho. That started a wonderful and fun tradition of our having a Christmas party each year. The only problem is that neither of our houses are big enough to truly invite all the people we would like to. :) Somehow we narrowed the list down to 20 or so couples and we had a great turnout. People were asking us when the party was before we had even set the date. It made us both feel good that people were looking forward to it.

Thanks to everyone, there was a lovely smorgasbord of delicious treats. One of the highlights of the evening was the slightly irreverent, but totally hilarious white elephant gift exchange. Some items were back for the third year in a row! Best of all was the opportunity to dress up a little, have an evening out sans kiddos, and get to visit with friends. When the ward split we thought we would still see each other all the time, but that has proven more difficult than we thought. It was so great to catch up with our friends that we don't get to see all the time. I hope everyone had as fun a night as I did.

One of the things that Rochelle and I kept talking about as we cleaned up after the party was the wonderful friends that we share. We are so blessed to have amazing people in our lives that show us beautiful examples of love, kindness, and service. I can hardly wait until next year!

The group photo (sorry some people left before we took this.)