Friends, Food, Fun, Football

I was summing up our day in my mind when I came up with these words, and they all started with the same letter! :) Today was our Clubhouse Grand Re-Opening Party (or first big party post-remodeling). Todd was busy baking and cooking early, while I finished cleaning the rest of the house. The party was supposed to start at 1:00pm, but we were pleasantly surprised when people started showing up around 12:30! I had always complained to Todd in the past, when people show up really late to our parties, so this was a really nice change. Only problem was, I felt a little bad as our caterers hadn't shown up yet. But there's really no rule that says you can't eat desserts before the main meal, right?? Todd made Dark Chocolate Cherry Brownies, Maple-Walnut Spiced Cookies with cream cheese frosting, and rice krispie treats with pepitas and craisins. For side dishes, he also made Southwestern Potato Salad and Balsamic Carrot Salad. Some of our friends said they found our house as soon as they turned onto our street, because of our large Ohio State Buckeye flag out front! We got to meet our new neighbor Tyler across the street, plus our neighbors two doors down Mel & Margaret came over. Our caterer set up shop in our backyard. There was grilled steak and chicken and all the taco fixings. Tacos, tacos, tacos! My friend Daryl from work, and his wife Julie. Todd's coworker Ken and his wife Sarah. And of course our friends Anne & Gilbert. I was sad to discover that I didn't take photos of all our guests. I was a little busy giving tours and socializing! Party #1 ended around 3:30pm. Sally stayed a while longer and helped us clean up. She was like my hostess partner-in-crime and a huge help. We rested for a little while, then Party #2 got started around 5:00pm. Anne & Gilbert went home to make these awesome Sausage Cheese Biscuits, and then came back for Party #2 to watch our Buckeyes play against USC! You know you have good friends when they come to your house twice in one day! Meera, AJ, and Andon also showed up for party #2. Except that Meera was cheering for the enemy! Her family are big fans of the USC Trojans. So little Andon was dressed in a USC jersey. :| I guess we know what to give the little guy for Christmas now, so that next year he doesn't show up in that USC jersey again, LOL. We had taco and desserts for dinner, leftovers from earlier in the day, and of course the sausage cheese biscuits. Todd's friend from Toastmasters, Sam, also came to watch the game. He brought chocolate covered cherries and nuts! Needless to say, I NEED to run a long ways to burn off all this calorie consumption. The only thing that didn't go right today was that the Buckeyes ended up losing to the Trojans 18-15, with only one minute left in the game. I totally thought they would win. I don't know which one is worse: being totally blown-out of the game by the Trojans like last year, or losing in the last minute this year. They were both hard to take. After all the guests left, Todd and I had a long post-game discussion about what went wrong. Todd is of course more expert in his analysis than me, but he acknowledged that I made some good points and asked some good questions. All I have to say is... I LOVE football season! And our Buckeyes. And good Food. And our awesome Friends. It was a day to remember for sure!