Valentine's Banquet 2012

I haven't posted about many of our church activities in awhile.  Mostly, that is because the events we have are yearly, and since I am into my third year of blogging, I find myself thinking that you have probably seen all of our activities.

But....

I also want you to know that, despite its yearly repetition, our church calendar stays full of events!  So, even though we repeat activities (like every church does), there are always new faces, new decorations, new food, and new games to see and hear about!  

Our theme for this year's Valentine's Banquet was "Charity Never Faileth."  Hubby and I organized this banquet together and enjoyed brainstorming as a team.  We also enjoyed shopping for accessories on our weekly date nights leading up to the banquet (and learned, ahem, that holiday items for days like Valentines do not come out earlier than a week around here!)

{Below}  Beautiful centerpieces that were given away as door prizes and rewards

{A box of chocolate covered cherries for each couple}

{My Valentine, running the banquet}

We had 22 couples attend our banquet this year.  Including our deaf interpreter, there were 45 people in attendance!  Despite the few who were sick and could not come at the last minute, I think this was a great turnout!

{Below} Our guest speaker this year was pastor Vlad (pictured with his lovely wife, Maya) from a city in Ukraine about 15 hours north of us.  

{Below}  And these are the beautiful couples I managed to get a picture of:

{Below} And yes, there's little 'ole us!

A game we played that was really fun was "Is That My Husband/Wife?"  We gave each person a form to fill out that included questions about themselves.  The only stipulation was that they were not allowed to show their answers to their spouses.  The papers were collected and then read.  If you thought your wife or husband was being read about, you had to stand.  Imagine the laughter when several people were standing at one time and also imagine the embarrassed looks when they found out they did not know their spouses as well as they thought!

It was a great evening, and I am so grateful for the many years of marriage that were represented by our church at this year's Banquet!