SHQ Veteran's Luncheon

Thursday (11/9) was a terrific, wonderful, heartwarming and uplifting day!!! It was our annual Scrap Happy Quilters Veteran’s Luncheon and we had 19 guests and gave out 6 Quilts of Valor. We were all at Osceola early to get set up:

And the veterans arrived shortly before lunch was served, and seemed to have a great time talking to other veterans. As usual, we had an incredible spread for lunch:

with these adorable signs I sourced just for this day for our main dish casseroles (although I will probably also use them for my tea in December….since chicken salad, tuna salad and crab salad look very similar….but taste quite different!):

As lunch was winding down (and several of the guests commented on the quality of the food and stated that they may have to start driving by on the first Thursday of the month :~), Loree started our program . Loree welcomed everyone and we all stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance before being seated. She called out the veteran’s names and dates of service and asked them to stand in place for a round of applause. She did a short but very interesting and informative history about the Quilt of Valor foundation and also talked about how much making the quilts meant to our group. We handed out the quilts:

-Roger Gross, Army/Air Force

-Dewayne Hill, Navy

-Don Roland, Navy

-Christopher McQueen, Army

-Edward Hinson, Nat'l Guard Army

-Bill Thiele, Army

then called ALL of the veterans up for a group picture (and I don’t know why, but I felt very proud to see 2 of our current members in that group!):

and asked if they wanted to speak. Several of the quilt recipients spoke, and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house after that :~).

Loree made some closing remarks, then our guests headed out and everyone pitched in to get the Fellowship Hall shipshape before leaving (see what I did there with that military reference :~).

I came home from quilting and climbed under the bed covers and took a TWO HOUR nap!!! That wasn’t only from the quilt presentation….I had a horrible night of non-sleep on Wednesday night.

Michael and I had a quick dinner, then he headed out for a pick-up rehearsal, while I knit the night away with a snoozing Freya.

*** If I have 10 chocolate cupcakes…and someone asks me for one…how many cupcakes do I have left? That’s right…..10! ***