Let's be honest: a majority of November was centered on one specific church-related event. Most of October was focused on it too, haha. The ward congregations in our area take turns hosting a really awesome Thanksgiving feast for the senior members of our stake, and this year it was our ward's turn. And as first counselor in the Bishopric, Chuck was made the point man. Lucky!
A good deal of the work was done beforehand - we received detailed notes from the couple who had headed it up the year before, and that was lifesaving. Chuck was in contact with the high counselor over the dinner, which was awesome when we ran into questions about numbers and options and budgets. We made many a trip to whatever it is that Cash and Carry calls itself now, Costco, Winco, etc. Here we are heading to the church circa 8am to get started that day:
There may have been a slight panic when we realized that the rest of our Bishopric, our youth, and youth leaders wouldn't be available that day to help us cook and serve - they lucked out and were at a special conference in Boise with John Bytheway, Hank Smith, and Meg Johnson. As always though, when Chuck sounded the call for help SO many ward members jumped in to help and we were fully staffed (including Lee - I loved watching the brothers work together and coordinate things in the kitchen!).
I thought the table settings were so cute (the stake Relief Society lent us their fall decor) and it was fun to watch as people started to come in and fill seats!
We had awesome ushers, aka kids from the oldest primary class. Will loved opening the door for Grandma Pam!
And then it was time! Our assembly line was efficient and amazing and plates were loaded up and then taken out to the tables... then boxes were made up for wards to take to their members who weren't able to make it to the church.
At one point there were maybe seven of us trying to do math and figure out how many slices of pie we needed.... there was a lot of laughing ;).
It was such nice timing - our new Stake Presidency had just been in about a month, so they came as our speakers and also went through and greeted everyone as they ate.
Caption via instagram: Chuck was the point man for a Thanksgiving luncheon feast today that fed 300ish senior citizens and holy moly I married a stud 🤩. Chuck put so much into the prep and execution of this event and I’m SO glad it went well and SO glad it’s over and SO grateful for everyone who helped; literally couldn’t have done it without everyone who showed up😅😍. [Special shout out to Lee, who isn’t even in our ward and put in like six hours, including carving turkeys like a champ 💪🏼]. Also, can I blame my current sleepiness on tryptophan if I bypassed the turkey but ate two pieces of pumpkin pie? 🤔🥧😴
I watched two little girls one evening for a new couple in our ward and since they live close, I walked over to their house. I realized this was a total throwback to my babysitting days haha!
Carma June wearing my FAVORITE dress from when I was little - made of course by my grandma Carma!
Carma had a talk in primary one Sunday and selected Clyde as her designated helper - pretty high honor.
Ha - sometimes my Relief Society lessons are a little unorthodox, ie this one where I was trying to use a canvas and paint for an object lesson. It didn't get finished but sweet Sister Marsh stayed after and helped Jack and Carma finish layering the paint on!
Ohhh Cookie Wednesdays at Janell's house... complete with crazy Izatt kids body surfing down the stairs. Janell is a saint!
If we needed more proof of her sainthood - she directs our ward choir! I took this picture of Clyde and a cookie to recruit more vocalists to our cause. Getting ready to sing the Sunday before Christmas always encourages a 'the more, the merrier!!' semi-frantic approach to enlisting more singers haha.
