Today was a busy day in the Stannix home. It began bright and early with a 7:30am drop off at the rink so the boys could reff a game. I juggled kids, picked up McDonalds, and helped Mike get ready for the Murder Mystery dinner at the church tonight. The afternoon flew by and before I knew it everyone was heading out the door one by one for the activity. The gym looked INCREDIBLE all decorated up with candles and name tags.
It was tricky to seat people and make sure tables were full and after being shuffled here and there trying to make things work it ended up being just Mike & I at a table in the far back of the gym. Mostly, it ended up being just me though because Mike was busy juggling the youths questions and eventually got sucked into the kitchen to wash all of the dishes that were piling up. A couple of people at nearby tables offered me to just pull up a chair, but it was fine. I thought I should stay to keep Mike company in case he ever returned. The sweet youth brought out plated dishes for the five course meal throughout the evening and I enjoyed photographing and eating all of them. They did such an awesome job!
After the second or third course I started feeling lonely and sorry for myself as I looked around at all of the full tables. It was so great to see people enjoying themselves though! I pasted on my best smile and enjoyed chatting with the youth who would come by.
Eventually Mike came to find me because he was having a hard time keeping up with all of the dishes! Seventy plates and soup bowls and all of the cutlery was becoming a little much for one man. His fingers were wrinkly and he needed an extra hand! I filled one of the sinks for the initial rinse, made the middle sink bubbles, and the final sink a rinse sink for the freshly washed dishes. Doing that helped speed the process up and then I could dry and put away and help clear space on the counter tops. We worked away in the kitchen while listening to the youth interact and laugh with each other as they plated each course in the next room over.
And I managed to sneak out to enjoy a little bit of the main course!
We went to the gym for the final reveal and had the youth line up for an applause. They did amazing dishing up and serving all of the adults in the ward! It was fun being in the kitchen and listening to them work together and enjoy one another. When the night was over, they all sat down to some slightly cold dinner and visited over the events of the evening. When they had all finally eaten, they took over the rest of the cleanup with four youth on dish duty and the rest vacuuming and wiping and putting away. Everyone did a great job! Not many will know the crazy amount of work that Bishop did behind the scenes to make this activity run smoothly from setup to technology to printing/cutting/folding clues and name tags etc. He is also amazing!
