Thanksgiving

Lf to Rt, Sisters McCann, Gillespie, Ann,      
Sister Hufstetler  and Fred

Table set up with serving area at far end

The past two days have been very busy with lots to do for today, Thanksgiving, as well as yesterday.  Yesterday, Facilities Management had a Thanksgiving Dinner for lunch for all employees, their families and the missionaries assigned to facilities and their spouses. Ann and I were drafted to help Sister Hufstetler prepare the food for the dinner for 180 people as well as clean up afterwards. The menu included ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn and rolls. Facilities employees and facilities missionaries had signed up to bring salads and desserts. Sisters Gillespie and McCann decorated the tables and we got Sister McCann to help stir the gravy.



The dinner was held in the grounds building which houses all mowers, tractors and equipment used to take care of all the church owned property in Nauvoo. We started preparations at 7:00 a.m. and the dinner was from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We had a good turn out.

Serving tables on mower maintenance lift

We made a couple of tables in our shop to set on the lawn mower maintenance lift for the buffet style serving tables.


Today, we held the mission Thanksgiving dinner in the stake center which is near the Nauvoo Visitors Center. All the mission sites were open until 2:00 p.m. to accommodate the visitors including family members who came to Nauvoo for the day. There were lots of missionary family members here for the week or part of the week.

Two of three serving tables being set up mission dinner

Some of the missionaries and guests on Thanksgiving

Following site (including facilities assignments) closures at 2:00, we had to go home get our assigned dinner items and our selves ready for dinner at 3:30. We had to be there at 3:15 because the mission chior was to sing a Thanksgiving song. Dress for the dinner was Sunday best. Because we had guests (my sister Melanie and her husband Phil) attending with us, we were assigned two items for the dinner. Because the missionaries had site assignments all day, the temple missionaries had the assignment to furnish the turkeys and ham. Ann made sweet potato and green bean casseroles. We had about 260 at dinner. That count include missionaries, temple missionaries and family guests.

After dinner, all missionaries had to gather at the visitor center to practice a Christmas Tree lighting song for the Nauvoo Christmas activities next Friday, December 6th. While there we got a picture of Ann and me with Melanie and Phil.

From there we rushed home to change into our Rendezvous costumes and hurried to the Cultural Hall for our cast's show. I played the part of the editor and Ann the Relief Society president. We had reserved tickets so my sister and her husband could see the show. We had a packed house for the show.