Monday, September 29, 2008

2008 Annual Fall Dinner

Saturday was the 2008 Annual Fall Dinner at the Blalock home. I was trying to figure out if this is our 3rd or 4th year for the Annual Fall Dinner. Well, whichever year it is, it is likely our last year to have the dinner here on Saipan. It is the last one for Hozumi for a long time, too, I think. She leaves Saipan for Singapore in 9 days. We will miss her so much! So we dedicated part of the evening to a farewell for Hozumi. In the picture below, Sarah and I are finishing some things in the kitchen, and we're about ready to put everything on the table. Sarah was the chef of the evening. I was the house cleaner. This year we had the couch in the entry way. Here are a few of the guests, Rhea, Hozumi and Esther, waiting for dinner to be ready. Here's the table, all set complete with soup bowls, for Sarah's yummy butternut squash soup. Harry's grandmother's china was used again to serve our guests. We get alot of use out of the china.
Here's chef Sarah smiling over her table. We just placed the three big pumpkins on the table. Sarah stuffed the pumpkins with rice, pine nuts, zucchini, etc. and baked them for a dual purpose of centerpiece and yummy rice dish. Harry and I are ready to enjoy our guests and a very good meal. See, Chris and Sarah both smile really nice when giving each other bunny ears. Hozumi is happy to be passing the roast beef along, and Harry is happy to take a picture of me holding roast beef. No, I didn't try any. There were plenty of good veggies. This is a closeup of one of the pumpkins, stuffed with wild rice. We got the pumpkins from our back yard. Last year we bought pumpkins, and I threw the seeds off the back patio. So now we have our own pumpkin vines and fresh pumpkin. Chris in his he-man pose, ready to dive into his soup. Ha. Starting on the left and going clockwise is Chris, Harry, Kaye, Hozumi, my seat, Maggie (behind Barry), Barry and Esther. And at the other end of the table is Rhea (blue shirt) and Sarah with her back to the camera. Our 2008 Fall Dinner guests. Here's a better shot of Maggie. And here's Maggie putting the finishing touches on her fruit skewers. She chased Barry away because he wasn't arranging them correctly. : ) Esther is thoroughly enjoying her fruit skewer. Barry arranged the banana leaves on the table and centered the skewers. Hozumi took one of the banana leaves and is pretending to fan Barry. I think Barry wants to know where the girls with the grapes are. Rhea and Hozumi are enjoying some carmel and nuts to dip the apples and fruit skewers. After all, what is a fall dinner without carmel, apples, apple cider and pumpkins? Mmmm - it was all so good! Thanks for coming to our dinner, everyone. It was a really nice evening.

1 comment:

Sarah Beth said...

Lovely blog, Mom. Couldn't have said it better myself. It was indeed a fantastic fall dinner, and your fourth, by the way.