Kylie and the King of Idaho

A few months ago, Warren's bosses at the credit union gave him and Becky tickets to a fancy benefit dinner/charity auction. The governor was also going to be in attendance, so it was to be a truly swanky affair.

While Wo and Becky were getting all fancy and swank-a-fied, sweet little Kylie asked where they were going. Warren told her they were going to a party with the governor. As is normal for six year olds, Kylie wasn't quite sure what a governor is, so Wo explained by telling her that a governor is kind of like the King of Idaho. That description really impressed his princess-movie-loving daughter.

Then, with a reverenced tone befitting a conversation about a "king", Kylie asked what his name was. "Governor Otter," her father replied. And suddenly Kylie's reverenced tone was gone.

She burst into laughter and exclaimed, "The King of Idaho is an OTTER?!?!" Which was followed by more laughter and then a decidedly un-reverenced, "How does anyone understand what he's saying?"

Someday, when Kylie is a little older, I will tell her an even funnier story about our governor and how he accidentally ended up in a certain kind of film ...

Ok, so maybe I will wait until she is A LOT older, but I think she is going to laugh just as much.

Because She Is So Darn Cute

White Elephant, 2014

Our FHE Christmas dinner happened last Monday night and, as tradition dictates, we all came prepared with white elephant gifts to exchange. I was pretty happy with my idea for this year's "gift."

Our tradition also requires that each person write a poem that goes a long with their gift. After the gifts are exchanged, the poems are read and the gifts opened. Trying to guess what the gifts are based on the poems is pretty entertaining. Here's my poem:

They say, “Food storage is ALWAYS good.”

But Sweetie, that’s not true.

There are some foods you shouldn’t stock,

If your fall-out shelter holds more than you.

If you choose to line your shelves

With products such as these,

You should also provide gas masks

So your loved ones won’t all flee.

For if this is all you’re eating,

Before the crisis is even at its worst

Your family and friends will all expire,

That is - - if they don’t kill you first. 

Another fun part of the evening was giving President Jones a hard time about releasing the rest of us from the Stake Relief Society right before Christmas. President was a really good sport about the whole thing, though. Bless his heart. 

And so after eight years serving together (three in the branch and five in the Relief Society), we are breaking up the band. Thankfully, we will all still have family home evening together once a month... which will give us PLENTY of opportunities to beg President Jones to call us all to the Spanish Branch together. Hermanas en el evangelio de la vida!

Diane Does it Again

We had a member of the Seventy visit our stake conference a few weeks ago. An AWESOME member of the 70, as it turns out. A sweet, spiritual man and a very engaging speaker. He really needs to speak in General Conference more often.

As the visiting authority, he had a lot of input on the structure of our stake conference and was very specific about what should happen. Our stake president had asked our Relief Society presidency to prepare a dinner for the stake presidency, the bishops and branch presidents in the stake, and their wives between sessions. Our visiting Seventy requested that it be a SIMPLE dinner, so President Jones passed that request for simplicity along.

The problem is, he asked the RELIEF SOCIETY presidency to do the dinner. And the RELIEF SOCIETY doesn't specialize in SIMPLE. Especially when Sister Woodhouse is the special events coordinator for the Relief Society.

I guess she might have done simple in her own special Diane way. I mean, she did use the china from Star Ward instead of buying all new place settings (although she did buy a few new goblets).

And she did go with the laser-printed scripture cards instead of the by-hand calligraphy option.

Sure, she scrapped the actual Church lighting and brought in floor and table lamps, but it's not like anything had to be rewired. I mean, calling in an electrical contractor would have been much more complicated.

Each table had its own glowing tree and twinkle-light-strewn ribbons, but as far as Diane's centerpieces go, they were actually pretty understated.

And when you think about the giant, Celestial-room-worthy center table displays at our stake meetings, the display at the front of the room that night was just a nice little touch.

If we had more time, I could tell you about the music, serving protocols, and menu for the evening. Just think: beautiful, elegant, and delicious. Sister Woodhouse's events are truly EVENTS.

So the moral of the story is if you want a SIMPLE dinner, ask the scouts to help.

If you want classic patterned china, goblets, glowing centerpieces, mood lighting, spiritual music, elegant service, and fancy food, you call Diane because THAT is her SIMPLE.

My contribution to the evening: Baklava!