Etiquette Night

This week's activity for the young men and young women of our ward was an etiquette night with specific instructions on how to date, since a lot of the kids can't seem to move beyond hanging out.  (And more on how to act around the other gender for the younger kids who aren't old enough to date.)

It started with everyone gathering at our house for hors d'oeuvres and mingling.  Then the kids all divided up by age and went to different houses for dinner and instruction.  Shawn really threw them for a loop by telling them to wear business casual - no jeans, no t- shirts, no ties, no shorts.  For the most part they all finally found something suitable to wear, but it seemed like it was going to be a big challenge for most of them.  I thought they looked pretty nice.

The oldest kids (16 and 17 year olds) went next door to this lovely setting.  They got to hear from a newly married couple and from a newly engaged couple.  (The newly engaged couple are both in their 80's.)

The 12 and 13 year olds were 2 houses up from us, in this yard.  They also heard from a newly engaged couple and from an older lady in the ward.  (She fits the bill for my storybook Grandma.)

 
And finally, the 14 and 15 year olds were across the street at this house, where they also heard from a newly engaged couple and the couple whose house it was who have lived there for 50 years.

Hopefully they all picked up some good information on proper dating etiquette and how to treat each other.

And since apparently, you can only have so much etiquette for one night, the whole party moved to the Young Women's President's house for rain gutter sundaes.  (I found the whole concept disgusting, but then again, I'm not a teenager.)

Everyone just dug right in!

It was at this point, that I knew for sure all rules of etiquette were gone, when one of the girls just had someone dump the rest of the sundae out of the trough and into her mouth.  Um, yum?

You know the coolest part about this whole thing?  I'll tell you.  Shawn was in charge of feeding everyone.  I asked a few times if there was anything I could do to help and he just said not really.  Wednesday morning I came home to a kitchen full of pots, pans and industrial size food warmers borrowed from the church.  He showed up at home Wednesday afternoon with a load from Costco.  The kids and I helped carry it in.  Then while I helped with homework and ran kids to lessons and back, Shawn cooked for 80 people.  (His second counselor did show up to help him.)  Seriously, I was no help at all.  I didn't buy anything, I didn't cook anything, I didn't serve anything.

After it was over, someone said to me, "The food was really good.  Did you make it?"  And I said, "Nope.  Shawn did it all."  As we were walking away, he said, "If I say the Young Men are going to do the food, I mean the Young Men are going to do the food."  It was pretty funny.

Just so you know I wasn't totally useless, I did wash all the pots and pans while they were at dinner.