Cana Meals

Once a week, the ladies of the Eagle Eye Institute have a special meal together where two of us volunteer to cook and entertain the troops. This gives us a night where we can breathe, be together, and enjoy life. We’ve had three so far and they’ve been lovely.

The first, which, in my opinion, was a defining bonding moment for all of us, was a murder mystery party. Erin and Kristy were the master minds behind this glorious adventure. Each of us received a relatively cryptic invitation to the Cana Meal that would be occurring Sunday. The day of the event, we received a second note, with a requested wardrobe. On my card, it was asked that I wear old jeans, a white t-shirt, a hat, and… a mustache.

Once the meal began we were introduced to our characters and told that there was a murderer among us: I played Enrique Graves, a Mexican who had dropped out of school and was working for the owner of the vineyard, who was the murder victim. Erin played Michael Nightshade a realtor who wanted to buy the vineyard from the victim. Graceanne was Kathryn Lawless, a librarian who considered herself to be the best friend of the victim, who had heard of the victim’s intention to sell the vineyard and move away. Becca played Vicky D’adly, the sister of the victim… they hadn’t spoken in years. Joan was Vicky’s gambling husband Norman D’adly, who used to date Vicky’s sister, the victim, before marrying his wife. Agata was a Doctor, whose name escapes me, but she wrote murder mysteries her last, surprisingly similar to the tragic death of the victim’s husband. And our dear Kristy was Grandma Babushka, the masters of ceremonies and only neutral party.

Each course we played a new round of the game, everyone got into character and we argued out all the different accusations throughout the dinner. None of us knew until the end who had actually committed the crime. It turned out that each of us had plotted to kill the victim, but the real murderer will remain anonymous. You’ll have to play the game yourself if you want to find out.

The next Cana meal was run by Joan and I and we planned An Evening with Mother Goose. We gave all the girls topics for favorite family stories they could tell. It gave us a chance to get to know the younger versions of ourselves as well as some great moments we’ve had with our wonderful families. We also decorated cup-cakes, which was a lot of fun.

This last Cana meal was led by Agata and Graceanne who planned a night in Poland for us, with Pirogues and Borsch. We ate banana splits and watched a movie together.

It’s beautiful to see how, with each Cana meal, we’ve grown a little closer in different ways. I always look forward to Cana meals as they are a light-hearted means to enjoy life.