Princess for a night

On January 25th our Stake held the annual "Yule Ball," an elaborate dinner/dance event for all youth 16 and up. Dan has been the deejay/emcee for the event since it began 5 years ago, and Bailey has attended as his "helper" for several years. This year, however, she had a chance to go with a date!

The dates were assigned. After a temporary snafu in which the shortest guy in the stake was matched up with Bailey (the tallest girl in the stake) she was assigned a really nice (and tall) guy named Jack.

But, I need to rewind a bit. Bailey reports that the dance was even more fun than she had imagined. But Bailey and her friends had almost as much fun getting ready! They spent all day beautifying together. Our friends the McDonnells graciously turned their home over to the girls, and they set up shop in the master bathroom.

I ran back and forth to bring them snacks and goodies. They were having so much fun together! They had set up stations for manicures, hairdos, makeup, and snacks. They all helped each other and a few of the younger girls came to assist in the beautifying of the girls going to the dance.

Then they got dressed in their beautiful and modest dresses.

Bailey's dress is one that Grandma Springer helped her find on KSL.com when she was in Utah last summer. It fit her perfectly and was just stunning.

 I'm just going to pause here and enjoy the sight of my beautiful daughter who is growing up so fast.

And now, onto the the dance. Bailey's group was running late so she updated music on her ipod for awhile while she waited.

Then Jack came to the door, and they took off.  Bailey would NOT let me take a picture of the two of them together.

When they arrived at the dance each couple had pictures taken by professional photographers (the pictures, like everything else, are free to the youth). Then they lined up to enter the beautifully decorated Winter Wonderland (aka Cultural Hall) through a lighted archway, being announced over the microphone.  They took their seats for the dinner and enjoyed the "dinner music", played by the best deejay in the world.

This is the point when I arrived to help Dan. I took this picture of the room. That's Dan's back at the table closest to me.

 Unfortunately, that picture doesn't adequately capture the beauty of the room. There were lighted Christmas trees set up everywhere, and it was truly lovely.

After dinner the kids went into the chapel for a short talk on dating while the adult helpers put away the tables to make room for the dancing.

When the youth returned, they had a brief waltz instruction.

Then they continued with the dance, including activities which changed their partners several times so they could get to know more people other than their "date."  Dan handled the emceeing/deejaying with aplomb and created a fun atmosphere at the dance.  I was there to help, but I actually was useless because I just spent time looking at all the youth dancing. 

After about 45 minutes I left to meet up with Aubrey, who was returning from a youth temple trip. I brought her back to help at the dance. She has now replaced Bailey as the official Yule Ball dee-jay helper. She had a great time and also entertained our Bishop's young daughter (she was there as his date because his wife was sick).

And then, one of the boys came over to ask Aubrey to dance! I guess his assigned dance partner was taking a break and he vaguely knew Aubrey so he thought he would ask her to dance. She was pretty shocked but we told her to go ahead. Her sister, however, was not so amused. She hurriedly danced over to Aubrey and pointed out to her dance partner that she was THIRTEEN YEARS OLD (well, almost 14).  The guy was a good sport and they laughed their way through the song.  

And then she had a chance to dance with her Daddy. I wish the picture was more clear.

It was a wonderful night for everyone. Bailey and all the youth had a fantastic time, and the event served a great service in showing the youth how much fun they could have together if they would just ask each other on dates!!