Decorated tables highlight Happening

Roosevelt County residents capped off a weekend filled with holiday events by taking in the Holiday Happening event filled with decorated tables, Christmas wear and Christmas items in the silent auction.

More than 500 people roamed inside the ballroom in the Campus Union Building on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday, viewing all of the tables.

A high percentage of those in attendance were women. However, Jon Kirby, Leroy Thomas and Don Thomas modeled black leather jackets and Christmas sweaters to give women ideas of what to get their brothers, fathers, husbands and boyfriends for Christmas. Dillard’s in Clovis representatives helped put on the Holiday Happening Fashion Show.

“It was a wonderful event,” said Don Thomas, who also decorated a table themed, “Christmas ‘Cracks’ Me Up” with nutcracker dolls across the table. “The event raised money for a good cause (money will be used to purchase playground equipment for children). It’s fun and festive and gives a great spirit for Portales.

“I was nervous about my table. The Nutcracker table is very personal to me. I have a soldier nutcracker for Terry Stevens, who is serving in the military.”

“The people were so creative when they were decorating the tables,” said Leeann McCorkle, a clothing model at the event. “The event gave people great ideas for Christmas. There were different styles in the fashion show from young to old. I liked the evening gowns.”

Sheryl Borden, chair of the Holiday Happening event committee, said she enjoyed the entire show and the amount of newcomers in attendance.

“It was a huge success,” Borden said. “Almost every table was filled. It looked like everyone turned out. Nobody runs out of ideas. I heard a lot of people talking about how they’re going to decorate their Christmas tables next year. They have ideas about how they can make their table better.”

Borden said she enjoyed seeing the smile on people’s faces and how happy they were. She also enjoyed seeing the faces of newcomers when they first entered the ballroom and saw all the Christmas-decorated tables. She said she liked all of the tables, but really enjoyed the “Barbie Holiday 45” table with Barbies wearing velvet dresses. Borden also really enjoyed the “Magic Boxes” theme for the table sponsored by Yucca Communications and “A Christmas Melody” sponsored by Bennett Land and Cattle Co. Borden said Gaynelle Thomas decorated “A Christmas Melody” and she also decorated two other tables.

The Red Hat Society chapter of Portales sponsored two tables, each labeled “Red Hats” while another Red Hat Society chapter from Clovis, Red Hat Chili Peppers, decorated a table themed, “Red Hat Chili Peppers.”

“It was very nice,” Betty Shober of the Red Hat Society chapter from Portales said. “We attended as guests last year, but decided to decorate a couple of tables for this year. I enjoyed one table which had antique jewelry.”