Thank You Notes

This week, I was privileged to help with our stake's worldwide dessert buffet after the world wide broadcast of the General Relief Society Meeting. We had a lot of help from some very sweet sisters, and I had every intention of sending them real, physical thank-you note the very next day. But then the kidlets (and the principal) demanded that I spend Monday finishing midterm grades, so the thank-you notes ended up at the bottom of a very large to-do pile. Then, thanks to my "friend" Lacie, I ended up MC-ing at one of the venues for our stake's road shows. While that task didn't really require a lot of prep time, it did result in a lot of pre-impromptu-comedy-stage-fright-freak-outs. But my road show participation not only took up potential thank-you note writing time, it also resulted in a longer list of people to thank.
For the record, I am still planning on sending all of those wonderful, thankable people some actual, non-virtual notes....eventually. But for the time being, these will have to do as a start.

To My Most Chef-tastic Friend, Zealanda-
Thanks so much for taking time out of your very busy weekend to make a 100 scones for our Relief Society refreshment table. You rock! And thanks in advance for all of the delicious things I am going to eat at next week's CSI Culinary Program's Italian Dinner. You have been blessed with many talents, and I have been blessed to benefit from them.
Love and handshakes,
Mindy
Dearest Demitropoulos Family,
Thank you for being Greek. Without your wonderful Mediterranean heritage, my mother would have had no reason to learn to make baklava or to pass that knowledge on to me, and our world-wide dessert table would have been less world-wide. You, Demos, are the clove and cinnamon-scented wind beneath my wings.
Love and (buttery) handshakes,
Mindy

Dear Kira and Sergio (a.k.a the best looking couple in the Burley West Stake),

I can never thank you enough for coming all the way from Argentina to cook those sinfully delicious cookies. If our government was set up the way that I am sure Ben Franklin intended, shipping one plate of those off at the state department would solve all of your visa extension issues. Your entire family amazes me. Thanks for answering the phone even when you know it is me calling to beg for your help.

Love and handshakes,

Mindy

Dear Spanish Branch,

Thank you so much for being my branch home away from my former branch home. Your road show performance was magnifico! I especially enjoyed your casting decisions. I love it when so many people I adore are on stage together.

¡Muchas gracias!
Amor y apretones de manos,
Mindy

Dear Rest-of-the-Wards-who-Performed-Road-Shows,

You folks rock! Thanks for being so darn entertaining that the audience didn't really need any pithy MC comments to enjoy the evening. And for supplying so much inspiration for the comments that the we MC's did make, pithy or not.

Love and applause,

Sister Mindy Dear Brother Hinckley,

Thanks for being the best high council person ever. You are the best Priesthood rep that stake relief society gals could ask for, and a wonderful MC introducer. Plus, your story about breaking up that girl fight at the high school really helped calm my nerves before the show. You really are superman!

Love and handshakes,

Mindy

To Lacie:

I'm sure I will eventually forgive you for volunteering me to MC the road shows.... someday. Probably. Maybe around the same time your nephew will forgive you for using him as a human shield to avoid photo retribution.

From: Mindy

P.S. I wasn't kidding about the whole "every time I step in front of that microphone, a little piece of me dies" comment. Not even a plate of you famously delicious brownies would be able to revive the pieces of my soul that now sit cold and dead (somewhere in the vicinity of my spleen) because I had to stand up and try to be funny in front of grownups. Probably.

Beautiful, Brilliant, Benevolent Becca,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being so willing to be my MC-ing partner yet again. You

were my super hero, rescuing me from a night of trying to be funny by myself. Your "Overland Avenue Road Show" joke was the best of the night. I promise not to volunteer you anymore if you promise to keep your sister-in-law from volunteering me.

Love and grateful handshakes,

Mindy