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Dining Divas’ Annual Christmas Gathering
The Season of Giving is All Year Long for Dining Divas
by Lisa Kampeter
I’m never disappointed each year. The kickoff of the “most wonderful time of the year” always makes me happy and proud. Happy because it’s a great way to start off the holiday season and proud because this group of women we call the Dining Divas continues to amaze me each and every year by their kind and thoughtful ways.
At the beginning of 2017, we decided that at the end of each Dining Divas meal, we would pass around what I jokingly called a “dime bag”.
As we passed around the bag, Divas would donate their dimes or their change or even their bills, if they so desired. The money collected would go to a Deserving Diva to be determined later.
By our November Divas, we had a great collection of money, and we determined we were going to adopt a family from Lydia’s House.
Lydia’s House is a place of hope and healing whose mission is to end domestic violence for abused women and their children. They provide 45 fully furnished apartments for families to find safety and support. We couldn’t have been happier to help give this family a happy Christmas.
And then, I couldn’t have been prouder when all of the Divas generously agreed to purchase all the items on this family’s (a mother and her son) wish list. We didn’t need to touch the money collected throughout the year. We were able to use that to purchase grocery gift cards for them.
The night of our Diva Christmas, all the ladies brought the family’s presents with them. The following Day, along with the Super Shopper Diva, we checked everything off the family’s list and completed our Christmas shopping for them. My Christmas tree had never had so many gifts underneath it.
What joy the Elf Diva and her Mr. Claus had delivering the gifts to Lydia’s House! The staff member who stayed after hours the night we made our delivery was shocked at how packed our “sleigh” was. Like I said, I’m truly proud to be amongst such an amazingly, considerate group of women.
Also, the night of our Christmas get-together, the Divas brought over gently used professional attire to be donated. Over the summer, we collected t-shirts that were donated to the homeless downtown. This time, we collected business clothing that we gave to “Connections to Success” in St. Charles.
This non-profit organization hopes to break the cycle of poverty by helping individuals realize their dreams and learn how to become economically independent. With an over-packed vehicle, we happily delivered loads of clothes to this wonderful organization.
As for our Christmas dinner, we went with a simple “soup and salad” dinner. And it was great! We had homemade vegetable beef soup as well as potato soup with all the trimmings (bacon bits, scallions, cheese, and crackers). A couple Divas brought delicious salads with made-from-scratch dressings. And then there was the overload of carbs with homemade biscuits as well as the best-ever dinner rolls. Seriously, with the Diva cooks we have, I don’t know why we’d ever want to go out to eat for dinner!
And keeping with our tradition, we all brought cookies to share. We eat some, and then we take some home. This Diva chose not to try any because I didn’t want to be overly stuffed. I just filled a Tupperware container of the cookies and then put them away. Man, did I regret it. Had I tried them, I probably would have taken many more! They were so good, and I wish I had some now.
Our traditional game of Rob Your Neighbor was hilarious as ever. For those that got stuck with “white elephants,” literally a giant white elephant and a dainty music box, perhaps they need to work on staying off the naughty list.
For those who lucked out and didn’t end up with the gag gifts, hopefully the “winning” streak doesn’t end next year.
Even though one lives the farthest away and the other lives only a couple miles from my home, the Night Owl Divas stayed up talking long after everyone else left. It’s such a great evening, and even though I’m always sad when the night is over, I’m thrilled that it’s just the start of a wonderful season. And once again, I’m excited for another great year of dinners with the Dining Divas!
