Thursdays: 11/30, 12/7, 12/14, 12/21, 12/28

Hi all! We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did - we spent it at my parents' house with 23 people and tons of great food. 🦃

Be sure to post in the comments if you're coming and what you're bringing so we can plan ahead each week! 

Also, get ready:
We're going to talk about some changes to our usual meeting routine. We will continue meeting at the regular time and day, but want to introduce some deeper themes into our conversations on a semi-monthly basis (if that's okay with you). We want to collaborate together and see what ideas you have for topics, etc. This is a church-wide change to our routine and we are excited to see where it leads for each of us!

Also, we were able to sign up to sponsor a family at Metzger elementary this year. The family has three kids and needs help with food and purchasing gifts for their kids (under $25 each kid). If you want to contribute toward these gifts or want to do the purchasing, let me know! Next week there will be more families to sponsor so we can sign up for another one if there is a lot of interest.


11/30:
This week we're going to have rice bowls with toppings. In my search of past meals, I saw that we last had this almost exactly one year ago! 

We will provide a whole boatload of rice (if you've caught on yet, my goal is to never run out of food. I guess I get that from my mother). We will probably have some grilled chicken as well. Here are some other ideas of toppings for the rice: 

-Shredded cheese

-Black beans, corn-Avocado-Tomato, shredded lettuce, cilantro-Salsa, guacomole -Teriyaki sauce-feta and sundried tomatoes-kalamata olives, roasted peppers-spinach and artichoke hearts-beef and broccoli -grilled shimp

Check out this link for ideas for other toppings:http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/rice-bowl-recipes_n_5133892.html

12/7:
This week we plan to have a pasta buffet. Bring your favorite type of pasta and sauce! If we have enough people, it would be nice to have some sides a well, like bread or salad. Maybe I should call this an "Olive Garden" theme...



12/14:
This week, let's try something new: Bring a dish that has some personal meaning. Maybe it's your favorite food growing up, or the thing you would eat for your "last meal", or the first thing you cooked for your spouse. We'll probably have a weird variety of food this week but I'm excited to hear about the stories you all bring to go with it!



12/21:
Are you up for a Christmas party this week? Let us know because we could make it earlier in the month as well. Let's make it easy and have pizza for dinner (we will provide this). Bring your favorite Christmas dessert, and we can do a white elephant gift exchange (or a gift card exchange if you'd rather be serious). 



12/28:
We're not going to meet at our house this week because Will is going to be out of town, and I'm going to be overwhelmed as it is on my own with the three boys (pray for me!). Plus, I suspect many of us are going to be either traveling or completely exhausted. 🎄🎄



Phew! Was that enough information all at once? If you're still reading, congratulations :) 

See you soon!