Eat It!

We recently played a game of Eat It with the youth.  Eat It involves two teams competing by eating whatever is in a brown bag and receiving points corresponding to what's in the bag, generally the higher point values have rather disgusting and/or large amounts of food.  The highest value bag was for 500,000 points and was a large bag of dried anchovies, but one of our guys ate it like it was potato chips.  I chose the 300,000 point bag, and I was stuck with a jar of picked ginger which I couldn't finish.  It's nasty stuff, especially in large amounts.

The evening was lots of fun and it was great to see the kids having fun, cheering for each other, and enjoying each other.  I think our team eventually won, but in the end, we weren't really paying attention to the score total.  The kids were talking about the game over the next week and were asking when we will have the next Eat It, especially the ones who didn't make it that night.  Playing games with the youth is loads of fun and it's always great when we have game nights with the youth.

Trip Home

(Written Saturday)

Today is a good reading day.  It is cold and rainy mixed with snow.  Snow’s accumulating on the nearby hills and it’s supposed to drop into the 20s tonight.  I just got back from a trip back “home” to Georgia.  After being gone for a while, it feels less and less like home.  People and places are familiar, but things also change.  It leaves me kinda sad, but also enjoying the moments with friends and family, and looking forward to the day when there won’t be anymore sadness and we’ll be in our final forever home.

Some highlights of this trip back were: seeing my new nephew for the first time, visiting with family and friends, long lunches with friends, sharing with Churches about what’s happening on the Reservation, watching election returns (I’m a politics nerd) and the encouragement and love I felt from many.  One of my best memories from this trip was going to near where I grew up in North Carolina and exploring in the woods with my little brother.  We chased wild turkeys, climbed big rocks, built a dam in a creek, skipped rocks, and had good ole time.  I also watched The Princess Bride with my brother, and it was his first time watching.  It was great to watch that with him and laugh together and say silly quotes later.  It stinks that I miss out as he grows up and will miss out on much more with him and my nephew, but I treasure the short times I got with them; making my nephew smile or playing badminton with my little brother.  I love my family and miss them lots.