Galas and Glorias

Yesterday, Christopher and I attended the annual Givers Gala, hosted by Primerica Financial Services office in Lancaster. As always, it was a grand night featuring delicious food, great company, silent and live auction fun, and of course, the featured charity, Girls On The Run. I fell in love with the mission of GOTR immediately. Their mission and outreach is fantastic. Hopefully they will extend into the Harrisburg/Mechanicsburg sometimes soon, because it is definitely an organization that I would enjoying being more involved in!! Check out more about them on their website.

 

Although I focused on enjoying our time together instead of photographing the event, we did manage to leave with a half decent picture of us together. :) 

 



 

 

On our way out the door, I noticed this small, white church off to the side of the resort where we had dinner, and decided to snap a few shots.

 

A large nativity scene graced the front lawn, beautifully highlighting the Christmas story in all its Gloria. 

 

The church itself was very picturesque. 

 

 

Then I got carried away with the angles of the steeple....

 

 

Beautiful, isn't it?

 

What a Gloria-ous Gala it was. :)



Frugal Christmas Decorating

The Christmas season 'tis upon us! I LOOOOOOVVEE Christmas time. The merriness, the caroling, the festive decorating, the food, the secret whispers of gift planning and Christmas morning surprises, the giggle and smiles and well wishes. Oh how I adore the JOY of these days.

While I have not, and am not sure that I can, give up on the consumer part of the holiday (who doesn't love shopping the holiday deals?!), I have made it a point to spend some time on DIY decorating and recycling old pieces into new creations. Have a real tree for the first time (as an adult in my own place) and has provided me with a substantial pile of evergreen branches sitting on the side of our garage, which in turn has been a source of creatvity for incorporating evergreen into other decorating.

 

The photo on the left is a door swag, made using a few of the smaller trimmed branches from our tree and incorporating wired bulbs from a centerpiece that I received as a hostess gift last year and  a bow from a previous years' wreath. Cost: $0.  The photo on the right is a similar but more simple swag which I hung above our garage door. Cost: $0. Now that is my kind of decorating cost. ;-) 

 

This is an evergreen bouquet composed of cuttings from my pile of branches, and again I incorporated wired pinecones from an old centerpiece. Cost: $0

 

Lastly, a few springs of evergreen added to a small bouquet of white carnations in a glass vase full of cranberries makes a simple yet stunning centerpiece. Cost: $7.50

 

What are some creative ways that you have decorated this season?