The Purpose Driven Party

One of the reasons we moved to a bigger house was to be able to have many friends over at once. There was hardly any room for guests to park at our old condo and it got really crowded feeling if more than 6 people were in the old place at once. Thank goodness with our new place we have neither problem. There is plenty of parking out on the street and we've got more than enough space to have many friends over at once. So this year we decided to have a holiday party!

We'd been buying food and supplies, such as paper plates, napkins, etc, for a few months now and then the week before hand we went into overdrive. We cleaned and decorated the place and we baked and cooked for a few days prior as well. And as the day of the party arrived, we were ready.
We served homemade egg rolls, chips and dips, cheese balls, chicken wings, ham biscuits, fresh cut veggies, tortilla roll ups, and some of our guests brought such things as baked brie with cranberry and orange sauce on top, stuffed jalapenos, spicy tofu cubes. We also had a dessert table that was filled with all manner of homemade cookies and brownies and other desserts that some of our guests brought, such as candied pretzels and pumpkin cheesecake. We had various iced teas, holiday punch, wine, and beer. To make a long story longer, we were ready to throw down on some holiday partying.

A bunch of nice folks that Sparky works with came by and sampled the hospitality. Some came bearing gifts even though they were told not to. We accepted the gifts and they accepted all the food and drinks they wanted. So in the end it worked out.

Also in attendance were my friend Keith and his sons Cameron, he's the older one, and Quinn, he's the one talking.
We all play disc golf together and Keith got me in to helping out with the film festival that we have here in Johnson City. They also came bearing gifts. They gave us, among other things, a holiday CD and Quinn let me borrow his copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They had out of town guests coming in that evening so they didn't stay too long. But luckily for us as the evening wore on a ton of other friends showed up.The gal is a new friend of ours who we met last night named Lisa, the handsome guy in the middle of the photo is Bobby, he's head honcho at our local library. The character on the far right is man o' the cloth, friend of teh gay, evolution defender, peace activist, and all around decent guy, Rev. John Shuck. John came bearing gifts as well. He gave us this calendar as a gag gift:As you can see from the cover it's got quotes from Rick Warren in it. Here's a few of them:

• "I'm hung over like a motherfucker, hand me $20 from the collection plate so I can buy me some Mad Dog 20/20."
• "When I masturbate I think of cute little puppies, sunshine, and of course, Jesus."
• "Pass me the white bread and mayonnaise or I'll have Jesus smite you. I am not playing around bitches, give me some of that white Protestant soul food or your ass is going to hell in a '73 Pinto."

In return I gave John a button that had a picture of Jesus smoking crack on it that said, "Crack Whores for Jesus." It was a pretty even gift exchange I'd say.

Also in attendance was the smartest man in the world, our friend Joseph, he's the one on the right. He's got a doctorate in political science and he speaks many different languages. And he also had the good sense to marry the smartest woman in the world,Vanessa. She's the one on the left. She is the chair of the biology department at my old college and she not only teaches two or three classes plus labs a semester, she also does research that gets funded by the NIH and other important groups. She's forgotten more biology than I ever knew. And as you can tell by how she's mugging for the camera, she's also beautiful and fun. Some of you eagle eyed readers may recognize the beauty queen sitting next to Vanessa, it's my blog and real life buddy Snad! It was through Snad that we met most all of the folks who came to the evening portion of the party. She and her brother Mike, that's him flashing the goofy smile and wearing the red tie,founded an anti war activist group called Concerned TN Citizens and that's how me met all the other great local folks we now call friend. Snad's husband John is also a stand up guy. Here's a shot of them getting ready to kiss:
Aren't they sweet? Speaking of sweet, the couple in the above photo are sweet as well. Their names are Brian and June. Brian is originally from Scotland and June is from Venus. Oh no, that's not right, she's originally from West Virginia. Both of them are fun folks to be around. June is not only whip smart and funny, she's also crafty. She's a knitter and she just made Sparky a beautiful scarf. When I asked her to knit me a thong, she politely declined while Miss Vanessa tried to suppress her gag reflex:
And this hottie's name is Donna:
She's Bobby's wife. She's not only beautiful, she's also smart, super nice, and funny. She and Bobby have a daughter who is going to be even more beautiful than her mother is, if you can believe that. I'm not sure what Bobby and Donna were up to before they arrived at the party but for some reason as soon as they got to our place Donna felt the need to wrestle our fridge. I'm happy to report the only injury in the bout was sustained by our refrigerator. It just goes to show you that although she may be beautiful, Donna can be deadly as well.

All in all the party was a great success and we'll be eating the leftovers for weeks to come. I'm glad we had so many people drop by and that they enjoyed themselves. When I was growing up in the social, political, and cultural backwater that is Lee County Virginia I dreamed of having smart, funny, good looking friends and I'm so glad that that dream finally came true.

Thanks to all of you who came by and made our first holiday season in our new place such a great one!