Christmas Dinner for Church

 

 We had the teenagers serve dinner to all the families.  We served the food "family style" at the tables. This was fun because the families could stay seated and not wait in a buffet line and also because the teenagers could all hang out together.  Let's face it, teens would rather eat with their friends than their families at this age anyway!

I was in charge of coordinated all the teenagers and getting the food to the tables.  I had this sign hanging in the wall by the kitchen so that the kids would know what to serve and in what order.  We had an "In" door and an "Out" door for kids to come in and grab the food to bring into the cultural hall/gym area. 

Our menu was salad, rolls, pork chops, green beans, and baked potatoes.  The teenagers ate dinner in another room after they served all the families.  It was a big, fun mess in their room.

After dinner, and before dessert, we gave each table a sugar cookie kit so that they could decorate their own cookies for fun.  We had homemade sugar cookies, sprinkles, icing, etc.  Dessert was served last.  It was some sort of rich mousse type thing.  I didn't really have time to eat but I heard everything was yummy.

Here's the chart I made so that we'd know which teenager was in charge of which table.  Each person had one table to be responsible for.  They also had name tags on that listed their table number.  Tables were also numbered.  For centerpieces we had gingerbread cookie bouquets and each vase had a cute paper with a number on it. (if you enlarge the pictures of the tables you can see in more detail)  We also had a movie presentation showing lots of pictures of people doing service throughout the year.  We didn't have a screen that was big enough so we just showed it on the wall at the back of the stage.  Also, the pom pom snowflakes that were hanging from the ceiling were from Martha Stewart's website and made from tissue paper.

After the ward dinner, all the teenagers came over to my house for an "after party."  They had a blast playing basketball, ping pong, watching Elf, having snacks, and just hanging out.  It was an exhausting and fun night for all.