Enduring Love -- A Valentine Theme

I had a wonderful time tonight at the Valentine Banquet hosted by our church. The meal was catered by one of the local restaurants and was excellent. The youth of the church labored as our waiters and waitresses for tips to be put in the youth account for this summer's mission trip. All the decorations were excellent. The after dinner speaker brought an uplifting message that was both humorous and challenging about making love endure. I'm truly enjoyed all aspects of this evening.

Were there problems happening? Probably so, but I didn't have to deal with any of them. I merely got tea and water for the table then sat down and enjoyed conversation with my guest. Robert played host with the utmost elegance. He made sure we all were well taken care of; calling over our waitress a couple of times for tea or water as he noticed our guest needed it. I didn't even know he knew how to do such thing. And then when everyone was through eating he personally got them all the dessert of their choice. (The man never ceases to amaze me.)

This is the table I was in charge of decorating. It turned out much as I had envisioning it, and of course it received great compliments and raves from all at the table and those who were wandering by. People are very kind.





A close up of a place setting. The silver is from my mother. This is the silverware that we used while I was growing up. I love getting it out now for special occasions although then we used it for every day. Oh, and Donna, every one loved the idea of using the luggage tags as napkin rings/place cards. You were given credit each time.





We have a very active group of young singles -- men and women ranging in age from about 24 to 35 -- in our church. This was their table done by them because the wanted to be together. It was colorful and fun. This photo doesn't do it justice.

This is another of the tables, just to show some of the variety of what the room looked like. It was awesome to see so many different ideas played out in one room. It truly is a fun way to decorate. There were 24 tables done by 24 different ladies with 24 different ideas.

This is the only picture I have of almost Robert and me this evening. The girl in the middle is Brittany our server. She did an excellent job. Her smile was just as big at the end of the evening as it was for the photo. She got a good tip, and part of it was because she got Robert back really good once when he was teasing her.


Paul and Gennie Vela were wonderful guest to have seated with us. They have traveled to several different places and I enjoyed hearing their stories about their adventures. We also compared our experiences cruising. Here Stan places a kiss on Nan's cheek. Robert and Stan are in Lions Club together and we have had the pleasure of being with them for two dinners this past week. Always a delight. They plan to go on the trip to Israel next December also. Nan and I have already started planning what mischief we can get into.