As a child, did you ever wish that everyday could be like Christmas? Maybe 'Unwrap a Gift' every now and then during the year? I mean, everyday would just be a bit much to ask, right?
Well, this past year has been all about Christmas! Imagine, 12 months of planning and shopping for Christmas! YES, since November 2013 we have had Christmas on our minds and not just because Christmas comes around every year but because we decided to plan a full blown Christmas Retreat for 2014 when our original retreat plans fell through.
We have had so much fun! ! ! With the 2013 Christmas Season only just beginning, it gave us the opportunity to shop for decorations, candy canes and yes, even chocolates that were nicely packed away in our freezers. Several times over the past few years the idea of a Christmas Retreat had come up but it just never worked out but this time we had to make some new plans fast and Christmas it was! 
Being at one of our planning meetings you would think that we all had a bit too much eggnog but luckily there is none available during most of the year and we were safe. We knew that the Ugly Christmas Sweaters had to be part of our fun and some great Christmas cupcakes and cookies, too!
It was promptly decided to connect with Camp Squeah's kitchen and find out if they would be willing to bake some Christmas Cookies for the ladies to purchase at the end of the retreat weekend.
The staff happily agreed AND they were also willing to prepare a full Christmas dinner for the women for Saturday evening of our weekend.
The next thing that needed to be done was to find a speaker, on rather short notice I might add, but when we spoke with April Yamasaki, (Senior Pastor at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford) and told her a bit about our plans, she barely hesitated and gave us a resounding "YES"!
Things were coming together nicely! 
We booked a workshop with Elly's Studio of Cake Design to learn how to decorated Christmas Cupcakes and one of our committee members volunteered to teach us how to do some arm-knitting!
Christmas Caroling was a must, as well as, the Christmas stockings and gifts!
The one thing that needed another brainstorming session was the overall theme for the weekend.
It took a few cups of coffee and some animated discussion but then inspiration hit, and when it's right, you just know it!
Christmas and Gifts = "Unwrap your Gifts" DONE!
But the fun didn't stop after all this decision making. The shopping continued!
Door prized, gift baskets, birthday gifts and socks, lots of colorful socks were bought that would be our Christmas stockings.
As October came closer the registrations started to arrive.
Last minute preparations were underway, such as baking 'Pepper-nut' Cookies (Pfeffernuesse - a small German Spice Cookie usually baked only at Christmas) They were part of the goodies in the Christmas Stockings and it would take a mountain of these tiny cookies!  |
| A mountain of cookies! It took 3 of us about 6 hours just to bake all these cookies! 2530 cookies! Yes, we counted them! |
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| All packed and ready for the Christmas Stockings! They also came in Gluten Free! |
The registrations kept coming! MANY registrations - online and by snail-mail!
From late August to early October, going to the mail-box is one of my favourite things to do! :-)
To be continued!
From late August to early October, going to the mail-box is one of my favourite things to do! :-)
To be continued!
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