Dinner Party

We had a dinner party on Saturday with some close friends. It's fun to get the house all ready for guests. We decided to throw a table cloth on the table for this event and I bought some white tulips.

As we were expecting about ten people, we also set up the table outside!

Dear husband was excited because he got ALL six burners going preparing for dinner.

We planned a "pasta bar" dinner with three different serve-yourself pastas: linguine in a clam sauce with clams and shrimp, penne with lemon pesto and salmon, and campanelli with sausage in a garlic basil pink sauce. We also made a big salad and had fresh baked rolls and freshly grated cheese. It was a hit! Here we are with Brian who used his artistic talents to label the pastas dear husband created.

Brian's daughter is Chelsea. She's sixteen and has become a good friend. Here we are before we made whipped cream for dessert. Chelsea is going to both junior and senior prom this year and sews her own dresses for these events-- how cool is that?! I threatened posting this photo to facebook and she made me smile by saying, "Great, I'll tell my friends that that's a photo of me with my cool friend that can do everything." I said, "What do you mean, I can do everything?" She said, "Well, you can drive... you own your house... you can go to bars...." It really made me laugh. (and feel old! ;)

Dinner worked out perfectly-- some of us sat inside, some out. As it was getting a bit nippy, for dessert, (chocolate cake with whipped cream, strawberries, and choc. chip cookies!) we all came inside-- here's a shot of the table: Counter-clockwise from the head of the table: Brian; Anthony's wife, Megan; Dear Husband; Brian's dad, Richard; my piece of chocolate cake waiting for me!!; Brian's daughter, Chelsea; Brian's mom, Iona; Brian's wife, Janet; Anthony.

After dinner we all played Taboo. What a fun game! Here's dear husband and Janet. Janet took her clue-giving very seriously.

Anthony kept saying the keywords that you're not allowed to say. We were all laughing throughout:

I think Brian's parents had a good time with the game. Brian's dad, Richard was really really good at giving clues!

Would you believe the sixteen year old was the first to poop out?! Chelsea! You can see she was winding down in this photo (with her chin on our coffee table). As for dear husband and I, we didn't get to bed until after 1am!!! Unprecedented-- we don't stay up that late on New Years! It means it was a really fun party.

Did I mention that Brian is the architect that designed our house and Anthony is our builder? I am so incredibly grateful to have met such amazing, wonderful friends through the crazy experience of having to rebuild our house... and look forward to many more celebratory gatherings.

I pulled Brian aside at one point and said, "See? Is this totally the vision you had-- here we are entertaining- M's cooking up dinner, but we're all still a part of the party, in this gorgeous open-floor plan space...." Brian said, "Julia, it brings tears to my eyes; I couldn't be happier for the two of you." How's that for a good friend?