New Year's Day Celebrations

We unpacked farily fast, mainly because I (Amy) was more than ready to get everything in its place and settled. (And I'm a perfectionist and can't stand things to be out of place. Type A, I know.) Our friends, Alan & Jessica Parish, who served in Zambia with Mallory (and Alan went to Samford and training with Amy) were passing through town on January 1. They became our first guests of 2006, and the first ones to utilize our new guest room.

Come one, come all... Since Alan and Jess were coming, we invited Dave and Katie over as well. Mallory, Dave, Alan and Jess were all in Zambia together. Dave's wife, Katie, shares the Alabama bond with Amy, and Mallory was a groomsman in their wedding in May, just three weeks after our wedding. In addition to that, we had Chuck, another friend of Alan and Amy's from Samford, as well as missionary training. (Chuck served in Europe, and Alan went on vacation to see him.) Whew! It may have been easier to say that we had some friends over, but if you know these people (or if you are Kari, Kim, Ashley, Jackie, etc) then you would enjoy this lengthy description.

Dave and Katie brought a game called Apples to Apples. It is a word game where players pair a noun with adjectives. They can be as appropriate or crazy as possible. Katie won the first hand, and I won the second. A great game for anyone who enjoys wordy things.

I cooked my first bundt cake! My gracious Aunt Carol gave me some wonderful bakeware for Christmas, so I had to break it in! I made a Spiced Pear Cake from Family Circle Magazine. It was easy and oh so delicious. Click here to get the recipe.

The whole group... minus Chuck, who had to leave early to go study.