Mardi Gras & Masquerade Ball

Not being Catholic, we have never really celebrated Mardi Gras or delved into Lent and what it means.  The kids had been asking some questions, so I decided to go ahead and throw a small Mardi Gras party tonight and talk about Lent and why people celebrate with Fat Tuesday prior to making their Lent sacrifices.
Needless to say, Shelby is NOT keen on giving anything up, but she volunteered to give up her bedtime. Awfully big of her huh? We made Jambalaya, and I grabbed a King Cake from the store. I have seen lots of people who have been so creative and made their own King Cakes, I'm not one of those moms.

Shelby kept telling Cole, I GET JESUS!!!

We enjoyed dinner, ate our cake and the kids both put together little flower pots that we recently received at a benefit ball Troy and I attended.

Yeah.... the Benefit Ball.... First, I should explain that both Troy and I are in our local Rotary Club. Next year our club is thinking about putting on a Masquerade Ball as a fundraising event. Neither of us has actually been to such an event. So while wandering facebook, as I am known to do... (yes, dear, sometimes too much) I found a post offering free tickets to a local Masquerade Ball benefiting a local Domestic Violence shelter. I jumped on the tickets! Pretty excited that not only could we get a change to "borrow" some knowledge for our own event, but also be able to benefit a local agency that does wonderful work.

Evening of the event, we get dressed up, Troy puts on a suit. We are ever so slightly nervous that we may not know anyone, but figure, hey, it's free dinner and dancing and we'll meet people! Worst case, we leave early.

Arrival at the hotel..... there are some interestingly dressed people getting out of their cars... there are two domestic violence fundraisers...same hotel.... go figure.... We walk up to the first table and we are immediately impressed.  We begin to register and they look at the mask I am carrying and their faces drop from a smile to a look of "oh, you're that type" they tell us "you're down there" pointing down the hall.

Alrighty then... As we near "our" event, we continue to see more interesting costumes.... but hey! it's a Masquerade Ball!  As we stand in line to register, we begin to notice lots and I mean LOTS of body art on those around us and pentagrams. I lean very close to Troy, who is now growing pale and whisper ever so slightly..... I think we're at a Witch Ball.... Troy says .... uh huh.

Apparently, this particular group of Wiccans/Witches throws a ball every year and picks different local charities to support each year. Huh, who'd a thunk!

On our tables were programs for the evening and attached to those programs were glass ornaments, filled with green leafy material with a sheet saying this was a Witch Ball. Please know we resisted EVERY urge to rip the ornament open right then to smell the contents!



No, this does not contain anything illegal, but we did get home and immediately dump Troy's out, just to be sure!



Yeah, it's a fairy

Lovely woman, not sure this is a costume.

At this point, what can only be described as the WEIRDEST humans possible began streaming by us with the most creative costumes I have EVER seen. Troy looks at me and says, Do you really want to stay, I look at him and said... it's free dinner and they have chocolate cake.



I have BEGGED Troy to get an outfit like this.

Dinner was good. We checked out the table with the door prize options, most of which were spell books and Witch materials. I advised Troy not to make anyone mad. He could end up as a toad. We did end up sitting with a lovely couple, she worked for the shelter, they were also unaware of what they were walking in to.

By the end of the evening, and yes we stayed till the bitter end, we walked out with a set of BBQ sauces (door prize) and 2 tickets to our local theatre. We also walked out with a true appreciation for a group that went through a lot of work to donate time and money to organizations who would not necessarily approve or support this groups lifestyle. Regardless of whether or not people agree with their choice of religion, their hearts and time and energy and money was going to make other peoples lives better. We can support that.  In the end, we met interesting people, had a fun night of dinner and dancing and we laughed! It doesn't get better than that!

And I got my face painted! Woo Hoo!