Feast Days!!!

The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived.  How thrilling!  For those of you who may not be familiar with our feast day tradition... 

Quite a few years ago we decided that the season was filled with too much "Give me, Give me!"  So we came up with the Feast Days as a way to encourage the "Serve you, serve you!" that needs to be in all our hearts.  We drew upon the example of Queen Ester and how, by serving meals to her King and also her enemy, she changed the fate of an entire nation. 

At the end of each November, the children draw a number from a bowl to determine the order of their feast- we have about two feasts per week leading up to Christmas.  Each child meets with me, individually, and we secretly plan a special meal to serve to the family.  They give special attention in choosing foods they know the other children love. On the day prior to their feast, the two of us go out for lunch together and then shop for their feast ingredients.  They choose simple, inexpensive gifts and decorations- spending no more than $12, usually. Everything is hidden and, on their big day, the kitchen and dining room is curtained off and the cooking and decorating begins.  (The children tend to choose a theme for their feast to simplify the meal planning and the decorating.)  When all is ready, they invite their guests into the feast with great ceremony.  Will reads some scripture and after a prayer, the child goes around serving each person the meal. Clean-up is their responsibility, also.  It's a real treat for all of us. So without more ado...

Eva's Feast...
This is Eva.  She's 16 and a real peach.  She's a very sweet and thoughtful girl.  Conscientious and friendly. She has a natural concern for others- no matter their age. She's been described as a "work horse."  That's true, in spite of her small stature.  When others give up, she keeps going.  Reminds me of her Daddy that way.  She's emotional but not sensitive, if you can imagine that combination. She's a very talented artist and makes bookmarks with these incredible, imaginatively dressed dolls on them. Eva is a blessing to be around.

She had a Pinterest themed feast.  If you don't know what Pinterest is... well, I don't know what planet you're from, but you can google it.  Eva says it's a website for virtual hoarders.

Eva and her sisters love Pinterest.  They find a lot of artistic inspiration there and have "pinned" hundreds if not thousands of items. So everything for Eva's feast was found on Pinterest. Her table was set with pretty lights and pine.  Pinterest has thousands of beautiful table settings.  She made place setting cards with screen names on them- every one had to guess what their screen name was. For some reason the guys all wanted to sit at the "2HOT4U" seat. That was her seat and a joke to see who thought it was theirs. For her gifts, she made little bows and arrows from popsicle sticks, dental floss and Q-tips.  You know the guys loved that, right?  A bit disconcerting to eat a meal at a table with Q-tips flying past you. 

The dinner started with three appetizers: Mexican pinwheels, and Mini corndog muffins, and Cherry cheesecake dip. Three new recipes and they were all a big success. I think the mini corndog muffins were the favorite.  We had Curry Chicken with rice and Naan for dinner.  Strictly speaking, I don't think we got those recipes from Pinterest, but I bet you could find them there if you looked.  Her beverage was "Grinch Punch."  Green with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 
Her dessert was a real crowd pleaser.  Chocolate bowls filled with fresh fruit.  Everyone was amazed by them and had to hear how she made them.  She blew up small balloons and dipped them in melted chocolate, let them set up and then popped the balloon.  Tada!  A perfect chocolate bowl.  You should have seen the kitchen- and Eva- when a couple of them popped.  Splattered chocolate everywhere.  But the final result was worth it. 

Will read from James chapter 1, and spoke of how trials are blessings in disguise if we allow them to be.  All in all, it was a great beginning to our yearly Feast Days.