Laurie and Joe

 

Joe and Laurie's Feast...

Joe is our oldest son and he has been married for four years to a wonderful girl, Laurie.  Joe is a good man. Have you ever met one of those? Hard-working and conscientious.  Appreciative and thoughtful. Great sense of humor.  Calm and steady.  Has his priorities straight and is determined to live by a higher code and going beyond what is expected.  Joe is a good man.  And he is married to a good woman. Kind and never cross.  Happy and content.  Generous and helpful.  Loving and supportive. Never considering wrongs suffered but always charitable. Laurie is a good woman. Do they sound too good to be true?  I can assure you, they almost are. Door mats, both, bless their hearts.

I've procrastinated writing this post about their feast because it was just so... BIG.  Laurie has an intricately imaginative mind.  She's a writer and I do believe that her alter-ego is not nearly as angelic as she is!  Joe is immensely supportive and the two of them are a force to be reckoned with.

They threw a "murder mystery dinner." The morning of the feast, Laurie handed out manila envelopes and said in her most serious voice- a smile all the way across her face 'cause that's just how she rolls- "Your mission, should you choose to accept it."  Each person had their own, top secret, dossier- about six typed pages.  We were all undercover agents- complete with individual character descriptions, background histories, confidential information, and a script of action to follow- convening for a conference aboard the Orient Express.  One way tickets from Amsterdam to Vienna were included.  See?  It was BIG!

But I gotta tell ya, as a tribute to how much we all love Laurie, our arrivals in the living room that evening just blew me away!  Every character present had pulled out all the stops.  Without consulting anyone, we were all dressed for our different rolls.  If we were gonna have a murder mystery dinner, we were gonna do it right!  Masterpiece Theater got nothin' on us! The agents included:

1.  Irish reporter(Dan- talked incessantly about his mother- who never had the same name twice)
2.  French painter(John- flirted with all the girls and was in love with his masterpiece painting)
3.  Italian secretary(Mary Ann- spent the evening scared of me- bless her heart)
4.  English nanny(Bekah- the most adorable nanny ever!  Who would suspect her of murder?)
5. Texan cowgirl(Evabeth- had no patience for flirtatious Frenchmen or Russians- kept asking for her knife back))
6. Japanese geek(Jacob- was falling hard for the Italian and kept holding her hand under the table)
7. Ninja(Abe- was silent- bizarre.  Scared everyone witless)
8. Russian seamstress(Nines- had hostility issues mixed with a healthy dose of disdain)
9. Russian business man(Will- kept apologizing to Doris for that one indiscretion with Natasha)
10. Head of the secret organization and his PA(Joe and Laurie- Mr. Seriously-I-could-have-you-killed and Mrs. Be-good-or-I'll-flatten-you-with-my-pencil))

 Of course, those were just our aliases. Most of us were assassins, but since the organization frowns on that term we were called things like "specialists" or "consultants" in "conflict resolution." 

Then there was the accents. Hysterical. Every time one of us started talking to another one, our own accent would drop and we'd pick up theirs!  Suddenly the Russian is speaking with an Irish brogue.

We had to leave our weapons in a tub at the "train station" before boarding.  The tub was full, what with everyone sporting numerous knives, guns and incendiary devices- and ok, a rotary cutter(all us quilters know how dangerous they can be, right?) In the dining room, Joe had arranged the tables in rows like in a dining car.  There was theme music from "Mission Impossible" playing.  We had pop in cans- just to insure there was no chance of poisoning.  We had bread sticks and pizza while different characters left the room from time to time- on cue.  Chocolate éclair cake rounded out the meal- round being the operative word.  Get it?  "Operative." 

Turns out there's been a murder- in the bathroom.  There are clues lying about and we all try, during the course of the meal, to ascertain the killer.  Turned out to be the Japanese geek, by the way.  (Who requested to drop his accent as he was exhausted from the effort- and why couldn't he be Spanish- he was married to a Mexican, wasn't he?) It was a crime of passion and not a sanctioned hit. Only two of us guessed right but, hey, I won the best character representation as "Doris Venedtkov" -wife of Boris.  Scared the kids when I came out in make-up. And I mean the big kids.  Will scared the little ones with his hair and excessive jewelry. And the mafia tattoo on his neck was a nice touch.

The Brilliant Mrs. Laurie Anne

I know Laurie spent over a month on this- even setting her novel writing aside- and we all had a blast.  Wish ya coulda been there!



The head of the organization wishes to remain faceless