Cookie Exchange

The other night I was in charge of a cookie exchange for the sisters in my ward. It was the Relief Society meeting for December. I was only put in as the Relief Society 1st counselor a couple of weeks, so we had to hurry and throw this together. I wanted it to be very nice because seven of my non-member friends that live in my neighborhood came. Also, I feel that if we are going to have a meeting that takes a mom out of the home it should be a meeting she will be a better person because she went. A couple of my friends helped me set up most of the day Thursday. We brought in couches, chairs, lamps, and even a big TV playing a Christmas fireplace video (the video Ben reminded me that Grandma Young and Ben warm their hands to). It felt real warm and cozy. We decorated with lots of Christmas decorations. The food was amazing. We had a really fun hot chocolate bar with four hot chocolate makers going and lots of different flavor creams and toppings. We also had some beautiful Christmas arrangements played on the piano throughout the evening. We had a nice Presidency message that started the meeting and then we exchanged our"Gifts of the Heart" gifts. This really turned out nice. It was a wonderful way to get to know each other. A lot of the ladies really spent some time making nice things that shared their talents. The cookie exchange actually ended up being just a small part of the night. I was so grateful we had so many ladies attend and I think they all went home happy and uplifted.