Our Open House

When we moved to Ohio from Singapore we decided that since we'd found that people aren't always good about inviting you over if you're new, etc. that we would do the work for them. So, our first year in Ohio we had our first family open house. People were surprised that we were the ones having them over and we enjoyed having people into our home. Well, for the next two years we didn't have one but when we arrived in Virginia we held one again. During our time there we had one every year. This year in Alabama was no exception!

We had our open house on October 20th and invited just about everyone we've met and know here in Alabama. The weather was perfect and I'd worked pretty hard to get ready for it. We had about 50 people attend (that number includes kiddos) and although it was supposed to run from 3-5pm the last person left around 10pm after helping us clean the kitchen and all. WOW! That's the longest 2 hour open house we've ever had. We loved that people had time to stick around and visit. There was plenty of food and drinks so we didn't mind at all.

Our menu consisted of: Artichoke dip, Brunswick stew, a caramel apple dessert duo, cheese and meat platter, chili, chinese chestnuts, chocolate covered strawberries, cornbread, ham and cheese rolls, hooter roll-ups, hot apple cider, hot wings, mushrooms bourguignon, onion dip and chips, pigs in a blanket, port wine cheese and crackers, pumpkin bars, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, rice krispy treats, rum balls, s'mores, sushi, sweet and sour meatballs and veggies and dip.

Everyone had nothing but good things to say and quite a few asked for the brunswick stew recipe - it's my grandma Billie's recipe and it's the only way I like Brunswick stew and, apparently, others agree! It really was a good time and I finally got to meet the Phillipino family in Brian's flight plus Collins, a guy in Brian's class from the African country Cameroon, brought two of his boys (he has ELEVEN) who are with him while he's here. His wife that's with him in the States (he has two) was visiting a relative in Atlanta so she didn't come. He's a very nice man and he's very taken with Ellie.

Ian had lots of friends to play with during the open house and Josh was really good about talking with the boys from Cameroon as well as the boy from the Phillipines. Plus, he had a friend from his acting class come hang out with him until later that evening.

All-in-all I believe it was a success and I'm resting up for next year's!