Why, you ask, do I have a photo of the Pirate's of the Caribbean in my Thanksgiving post? Well, I'll tell you. Our annual JV Thanksgiving conference is our most relaxed conference all year. It's mostly about fellowship and food and "family," with a few sessions of Biblical teaching mixed in. One of the activities we all take part in during this conference is the "Family Frenzy" time. This is an allotted time when there are lots of different games, sports and activities for us to sign up for and enjoy. Well, Katka (Yes, the same one who helped me move, and who is in the senior photo shoot. I know, we spend a lot of time together.) and I decided we wanted to find something low key so we could just chill during that time, and, sure enough, there was a puzzle to work on. Perfect. Or so we thought.
Above is the puzzle we took on with our bare hands that fateful day of the 23rd of November 2007. I'll tell you what. All that green mess = impossible. I became slightly obsessed once we began the project and found that it stole many minutes of my life away from me this past week. And I say stole because, you guessed it, it was never finished. NEVER FINISHED!!! You might as well tell me my dog died, because an unfinished puzzle sucks just as bad. Okay, maybe not just as bad, but it's not fun.
Besides the unfinished puzzle, the retreat was great. And so was the FOOD! Before we started eating on Thanksgiving day I started to get a little sad, not just because I was missing family, but also because I was missing good Southern cooking. You see, in JV, Southerners are a minority. In fact, besides my friend Brittany who is heading to Ukraine, I think Slovakia is the only JV country that has any Southerners! Such a shame! So as I sat there preparing myself for the feast, I started to miss 2 things that I know I would have gotten at home: sweet tea and cornbread dressing. Well, the sweet tea was unavailable, but my amazing teammate, Kim (from Arkansas), filled my need for cornbread dressing. She had made one and it just wasn't out on the table yet. And it was glorious. I don't know if many of you know the joys of a good cornbread dressing, but I know my brother does, and I hope he is delighted when reading this.
6 comments:
OK, I wish my employer would hold a conference like this for me, too!
I SO missed being there with you guys!! JV Thanksgivings were some of my favorite times ever. Sorry about the puzzle.
I tasted this amazing substance called cornbread dressing for the first time 5 days ago. "It feels so good to be alive", was all I could manage to say. I am starting to use Vonage as a mild curse word.
mmmmm....Laura you and I know the great pleasure of this dressing. I pretty much made mom make it for us when I we were home, and not grandmother dressing but the classic cornbread grandmama Reynolds dressing! I'm so glad it was not held from you this giving of thanks and I second the cursing of Vonage and all National internet worker type people who refuse to go on roofs and have good customer service. Ok, I'm done now.
Laura-
I promise to make you your own dish of Grandmama Reynolds' cornbread dressing the first weekend you are HOME!!!!
You just name the date!!!!
Your ever-loving Mama Gayle
1. My mom makes cornbread dressing! I too had some for Thanksgiving! Were there sweet potatoes--or candied yams, as some call them. I can't have Thanksgiving without the sweet potatoes.
2. I'm proud to be your fellow southerner.
3. I miss you...a lot.
4. I called you. Did you get my message. I assume, based on others comments on your vonage, that you did not.
5. You spelled my name wrong: BrittNEY. Just FYI.
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