Friends and Deer Burgers

On occasion, Husband will do this funny thing where he calls me at 4:00 and tells me that we are having friends over for dinner at 6:30, though he promises to be home by 5:00.  What inevitably happens is the following:

The kitchen looks like the scene of a grocery store massacre. 

My tablecloth is a piece of un-hemmed fabric with a square cut out of one corner.

Clara helps with the cooking by bear hugging my legs and screaming at the top of her lungs... for an hour.

Husband gets home at 6:00, after all the food is prepped.

I serve gourmet deer burgers on dollar store hamburger buns.

And I spend the entire night thinking:

"Gosh, Lincoln is so cute!!"

"Why don't we get together more often??"

And finally:

The beans get left out overnight and I spend the next day mourning the loss of my leftover lunch possibilities.

So there's that.

2nd Annual Gingerbread Party

Once again, we gathered all of our friends around a child-sized table, passed around a bottle of Martinellis, and ate way too much candy.  We had a true candy house, a cottage complete with a truck and gummy dog, a cathedral-like home with a wreath and snowman, and a two story mansion with a floating roof.  It was wonderful having so many friends in our home, especially Jenny and David, who we haven't seen in much too long.

(See last year's Gingerbread Party here)

Goodbye, Best Ward Missionaries Ever

Last weekend, we had a farewell party for a great friend-couple of ours. They are moving all the way to the land of Twilight. I’ve been to Forks and Port Angeles and let me tell you, those vampires were on to something. It’s beautiful, it’s green, and Seattle is within driving distance. They also have farmer’s markets!

(Another grudge I have against Arizona is the lack of farmer’s markets. Seriously, if all of the grocery stores shut down, the only thing to eat would be sand and some kind of cactus jelly. But, that’s in rural Arizona. In metro Arizona, where I live, I’d be eating concrete and asphalt.)

Without further ado, I introduce you to the friend group, as well as my Chocoflan (thanks to Amy), which I thought was ruined, but actually wasn’t. (Credit for the pictures goes to Ashlee.)

First Annual Gingerbread Party

The week before Christmas (yes, I am very late on posting this), Husband and I hosted a gingerbread party.

Since I'm the full-time worker, Husband was in charge of cooking up the perfect gingerbread recipe and constructing the perfect houses.

This did not happen. 

Husband got lazy, made one huge gingerbread house (which later fell apart and was never decorated), and bought graham crackers instead...

As disappointed as I was in the graham crackers, it gave every a chance to bust out their architectural skills.

We had a house-that-fell-down-and-became-the-Mesa-temple, a modern two-story with a balcony, a house modeled exactly after the couple's real house (impressive), and a traditional gingerbread cabin, complete with car, icicles, and landscaping (ours).

All in all, I think the party was a success.

And it helped me get into the Christmas spirit, which I really needed!

Sleepover of Awkwardness

The group, on top of a mountain in Papago Park.

On Saturday night, our friends invited us to a sleepover...

Yes, a sleepover for married couples.

Turns out, a brother-in-law had to cancel a trip and couldn't get a refund on his hotel room.  This hotel room had three beds.

Badda boom, badda bang... sleepover.

The whole thing was strange, but it was a lot of fun to hang out with couples our age.  I'm actually starting to feel like I have some friends!

This one will be filed under the strange things I've done in my life.