Since some of you wondered, I’ll give you a feel for our Falling into Friendship enrichment activity. I took Cathy’s poem and modified it since we’d already decided on the fondue and we couldn’t go picnic. With the help of my friend Emily, on our 2 hour trek to Ikea, we came up with the following:
In our ward melting pot Together we’ll thrive An exciting new start Though it is quite a drive
A mixture of faces Some old and some new So come for some friendship And a little fondue
We setup the tables with creme tableclothes and brown paper goods with fall leaves and fall colored chocolates strewn over the table. There was a cardstock bookmark with a friendship poem at each placesetting. We hung a fall garland with a “friends” sign over each table (get it-falling into friendship). We’d asked everyone to bring small display baskets with a few of their favorite things so the front of the cultural hall was decorated with those. They were REALLY cute!
Beforehand, the big debate was whether or not to have everyone talk about their baskets. Ultimately I decided that it would be better just to display them for 2 reasons. -1 Our old ward had just had an activity like this only each sister brough a shoe that represented her. -2. I thought it better for the sisters to interact and converse with each other rather than just listen all night.
After a short fondue etiquette lesson, we served cheese fondue (in fondue pots at the center of each table) with pasta, bauguettes and broccoli for dipping. During dinner they played a game (created by my friend Kelly) using phrases from the RS proclamation. There were various things they had to do like guess the names and ages of the people at their tables, complete a scavenger hunt using items in their purses, score points for completed visiting teaching, etc. After dinner we served pumpkin roll while the Enrichment Counselor read a story called “The Island that Wasn’t There.” Then I thanked them for coming and we closed. This offered them the chance to look at the baskets or continue to chat at their tables or go home.
It was only about an hour and 15 minutes but I wanted them to leave wishing it was longer instead of wishing it was over. 🙂 I wish I’d remembered my camera because the gym looked pretty cool but I felt fortunate to have remembered the food (I had nightmares-seriously-the week before about not having the food ready when the sisters arrived). We had about 45 sisters show up and they seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
Now I’m on to planning our Christmas Pilgramage activity. Traditionally, we’ve gone to a few houses and eaten appetizers and desserts while enjoying a Christmas program. I want the focus to be on gifts only you can give (using O Henry’s Gift of the Magi, the Christmas story and another story I still need to find). Any ideas for a good, catchy title??