Our Christmas Party (a little late)

Christmas is a busy time of year for everyone - including the Brother Andre's crew!

We had all had a great Christmas, but on the first weekend of January, Christmas Season was celebrated one last time. On Sunday, January 7th, the Brother Andre's crew met for OUR Christmas party. This was not just any ordinary party; it was a big event!!

First, we had our Brother Andre's Mass. (I thought that all of the participants did a great job!) After Mass, we gathered in the Cafe where we took up the whole back section. (All of the church-goers were in the front, but it was great there were so many of them!) The Cafe was still festively decorated. There were little bright lights, a tree with colorful lights, and a statue of Santa Claus- which, in my opinion, was kind of creepy,- but I guess it qualified as Christmas decor.

We knew this year's final Christmas celebration was on a very significant weekend! Brother Andre's feast day is January 6th, that weekend in January is the Anniversary of the Epiphany, but wait, -there was even more to celebrate- January 6th is my Birthday! And, oh yes, January 7th is Dan Gallagher's Birthday. Soo yeah, we sure did have to celebrate.

We had pizza with pepperoni and cheese! I love a good pizza! And no celebration is complete without extraordinarily delicious cake! A funny story about the cake was that there were so many reasons to celebrate that we decided to put 'Happy Festivities' on the cake to cover all bases. ('Happy Festivities' included every possible reason for celebration AND had lots of icing-so, everyone had a 'sweet' time!)

The Brother Andre's gang also had a gift exchange. For the past year, we have had a program we like to call 'Secret Buddy'. Sarah came up with the idea. I like to describe it as 'All Year 'Round Secret Santa'! I think it's a great idea, and it's very thoughtful. At the Christmas party, it was so much fun to find out our Secret Buddy. Everyone was excited, happy, and appreciative- all at once. It was definitely a sweet moment.

Then there were even more gifts: aprons! Each one of us got one with our name on it! Bridgette actually used her Cricut to personalize each one. Of course, she made Joel, her husband, help - so shout out to him! (So, I guess Bridgette deserves a shout-out too!)

The Brother Andre's gang always has a great time together! I feel like our Cafe really brought people together. I've seen so many incredible friendships blossom, and it's beautiful to see.

Christmas time at Brother Andre's was definitely bumping and I'm looking forward to what 2024 brings.