Thanksgiving Potluck for Residents

We had our annual Thanksgiving Potluck with our residents here last night. As always I managed to eat to much. It is hard not to with all that great cooking. Laurie cooked a 20 lb ham and a 22 lb turkey and one of the residents also cooked a 20 lb turkey. Surprisingly there was not much left at the end of the night. We asked all our residents to please bring a non perrishable item with them for donation to the local food banks. Everyone did and we ended up with 5 orange boxes of food. I will take it to the food bank today so that it can be distributed in the Thanksgiving food boxes going out this week. It seems like this area is being hit pretty hard with more demand on the food banks and less donations going to them. We are very proud of our residents for stepping up to the plate and helping with their donations. We make sure that the food bank knows that the donations come from all our residents - even those who cannot afford to help.
We had a good turn out. There were 54 people who showed up. It was a little down from last year but it was still a good turn out. I think the part I enjoy the most is setting back and watching the expressions on the faces of those who worked so hard to make this dinner happen. Believe me when I say there is a huge amount of preperation that has to be done for one of these dinners. It is pretty cool to see the look of satisfaction and contentment on the faces of those who worked so hard. They seem to bask in the enjoyment that others are having in their efforts. The interesting part is that most of the people enjoying the meal have no clue what it took to make it all come together. All they know is that there is lots of good food and good company! I am very proud of my wife and all others for their efforts in these endeavors.