Pancakes and Killer Bunnies

We love hosting events for our small group. In large part, of course, because they're a wonderful group of people. But it's also nice, every once in a while, to host a gathering where you know your guests will all want to bring something and/or help clean up afterwards. It's like we're all grown-ups or something... :) Remember our small group Christmas party? Where we had like fifteen different kinds of desserts? Good times.

We had this idea to have a pancake brunch as a social gathering for this new ministry we're spearheading through our church, reaching out to the post-college, pre-kid demographic. The church had two other brunches planned for this Sunday, though, so we couldn't advertise our brunch as an "official" church ministry event. So instead, we decided to invite people over just for fun. :) It was so good to be able to hang out with people again after the holidays -- we're all such a transient bunch, and pretty much everyone was out of town for Christmas and New Year's.

I'd thought that I could be Martha Stewart for the afternoon, making all kinds of brunch foods and being the perfect hostess. But as soon as I sent out the email invites, offers of food started pouring in. Here's what I ended up making: (1) caramel apple pancakes (from a mix!); and (2) a batch of regular buttermilk pancakes. And here's what others brought: (1) pumpkin chocolate chip bread; (2) bacon; (3) sausages; (4) cranberry peach juice; (5) aebleskiver and filling.

Aebleskiver! And all manner of special filling!

Scrumptious Danish pancake puffs being made;
served with apple butter, powdered sugar, and other fillings

I'm pretty sure we got the better end of this deal. :)

Matt and Carrie also brought the game Killer Bunnies. It's a pretty simple card game, really -- you just have to keep a few sets of rules in mind as you play...

As explained to us newbies, you have Run cards that determine actions you can take, but some of the Run cards can only be played if you have a Bunny on the table. You also have Special cards that can be played either through your Run or saved on the table. And then there are the Very Special cards that can be played directly from your hand, or saved on the table. And some of the Special or Very Special cards need a Bunny on the table, too. And then the Play Immediately cards have to be played immediately, once drawn. And Kabalah Dollah cards are the currency of the game, and if you draw a Dollah, you have to save it on the table and draw again. You can buy Bunnies, Carrots, Cabbages, Water, Defense Cards, and Weapons. You can play a Weapon card through your Run, though again, some Weapons require a Bunny on the table. Some Weapons have wide ranges, and will hit the Bunnies next to your target Bunny. A Bunny can deflect a hit if the player rolls higher than a certain number. Oh, and you can get Barrier cards which deflect range Weapons. And there are also Feed the Bunny cards, which mean that the target Bunny needs to get a certain number of Cabbage and Water cards before that player's next turn, or else the Bunny dies. But the point of the game isn't to have Bunnies (though you do need at least one Bunny by the end to defend your Carrots). It's not even to have Carrots. You just need to have, at the end of the game, the one Carrot that's at the bottom of the deck of small Carrot Cards.

Makes sense, right?

We're so thankful for our small groups, and all the friends we have here in Princeton!