Mormon Mardi Gras

My mother insists that Mormon Mardi Gras is a contradiction of terms, an oxymoron of sorts, but I tell you we had an awesome time without having to bear all to earn beads! We had good food from the authentic to the non, including the famous Chacon red beans and rice. And what Mardi Gras celebration would be complete without King Cakes (provided by yours truely of course)?

They had different tables set up each with it's own game. Let's see, there was Uno, Mad Gab, Apples to Apples, Name That Song (80's version), President (a card game), and Mardi Gras Thunder. I'd forgotten how... interesting... some of the 80's music videos were. I was rather embarrassed when our group was playing the game and some racy video came on. The worse part was, you couldn't fast forward the video! Everyone looked over at us as it was playing... oh, my!

Mardi Gras Thunder was a rather fun game from our returned missionary Elder Menendez. You toss 3 quarters until you get 3 of a kind (heads or tails). Once you get 3, you put on a series of items (mickey mouse ears, a mask, beads, gloves) and try to open a candy bar wrapped in 3-4 layers of newspaper using only a pair of knives. In the mean time, your partner is tossing the quarters until they get three of a kind. Once they get 3, you take everything off, they put it on, and while you're tossing the quarters, they're working on the candy bar. It was kind of funny to see the Bishopric and their wives wearing the funny getup while playing the game, and I know I looked goofy! I even won the round for our group, though it was really no contest because women and chocolate are a volatile combination. The funniest part of the whole game was the expressions on people's faces when they realized that they had to take all of that stuff off... again... and try their luck at the quarters.

This was Tim's idea of a joke. He caught a picture of me playing around with a mask on the table and snapped a picture, but luckily someone else made him put something funny on and let them take his picture.