Branch Thanksgiving Dinner 2008

We had a wonderful time with the Branch for the annual Thanksgiving Dinner. There were 85 of us who gathered together for the event. There was an incredible amount of yummy food.

Elaine, Evan, and Dad. Just last Monday Evan was in the hospital having an emergency appendectomy. He hurts but is otherwise doing just fine.

Charles, and Larry.

Bill Pauls, Lois, and Judi Tenney.

Wanda. She will be having cataract surgery soon.

Tony Robertson, John Harter, Mikel Dunn, Gary Mierotto, Lorie Rich

Rusty Fiek, John Plock, Elizabeth Plock, Caleb, and a family that the Fieks are fellowshipping. Their little boy became deaf recently from an illness. Really nice family but I can't remember their names.

Sister Chitta, Savannah, Ryder, and his cousin Tinkerbelle. I can't remember her real name because she insists we call her Tinkerbelle.

Our two blond sister missionaries with some of the investigators. Phillip is the man on the left and loves Don. Of course everyone here does.

Madeline and James Celestine.

Eric's girlfriend, Eric, and our new Sister Missionary who has been quite unfriendly so far. Perhaps she is just having trouble adjusting.

Joe DeCamp is seated in the center, Terry, and then David Meeker who is a recent convert. He is deaf and blind.

Linda Cole and maybe her grandkids, I'm not sure. Might be friends of the DeCamps.

Marla Dunn, Sister Bug's daughter, Daniel, Sister Bug and her grand daughter. I always get nice big hugs from the kids when they see me at church.

Debbie Clanton at the dessert table. Sister Fiek made a really wonderful Lemon Meringue Pie. She said it was from a recipe that her mother used. While very, very good; it still couldn't compare to Grandma's.

In the center at the table are Margaret Browning, and Kathy. The three in the back are from left to right are Evan and Elaine Van Orman and Liz Stamps.

Keith Stewart, Leanna, Betty, Edna, and Kathy.

I took this photo of Dad but before anyone else at our table was ready. Wanda is seated next to Dad and then Charles, and then Bill Pauls. Charles had been cutting his hair with clippers. He was in the middle of that when the clippers broke.

There wasn't time to go buy new ones before the activity and he didn't know how to fix it with scissors so he just came "as is". One of the previous photos shows the hair do (or don't) even better. He is so cool.

Incidentally, after the activity he was too tired to go shopping and so...Yes he did! He came to church with half of his head shaved! No pretence there!

For two weeks before the dinner Sister Feik asked us to write compliments about each other and turn them in to her anonymously. It was a good exercise and made us really think about what we knew about each other. Then she cut out all of the leaves and while sitting in front of her television set copied the comments onto the leaves. It was a lot of work but it paid off big time.

People not only stood in front of the 6 foot tree searching for comments about themselves but they also read what was said about others. I noticed a lot of people agreeing. "That's true, he really is a happy person". "She's kind to everyone".

I'm thinking that when we get settled in our next location we should try to do something like this. It's always good to hear nice things and it's even better to write them.

Never leave an already heavily burdened husband in charge of watching the sweet potatoes while the marshmallows brown. We got a good laugh from this. Kind of looks like olives, huh?

We had a really nice time visiting with everyone.