A bridal shower for Rachel!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I got to go up to Queens for the bridal shower of one of my old college roommates!!  Rachel is working in the State Department these days, and is currently posted in Prague (after having been posted in Tel Aviv), so it's rare that she's in the States.  So you better believe I made the time to make the trek all the way out to her parents' house for this beautiful bridal shower brunch!

Rachel and Shay are such a cute couple -- they're really perfect for each other, and it's so beautiful to see that.  And it was so much fun getting to celebrate Rachel with other dear friends!  We had quite the roommate mini-reunion -- it was SO good getting to see all of these girls.


Princeton girls!  Karen, Diana, Yashih, Rachel, Shauna and me
The shower itself was lovely.  Hosted by Rachel's mom and sister, there were so many sweet little touches -- including a surprise guest at the very beginning!  Rachel was given a little gift to open, and then was told to guess who from her past had come to celebrate with us at the shower -- it was a favorite teacher from grade school, who had apparently made a huge impact on Rachel's life.  Which says something sweet and nerdy about our dear Rachel.  :)


The clue: a little flamingo figurine


Surprise!
We played silly games, ate delicious food, showered Rach with gifts, and had a wonderful time together.









Rachel, you're so beautiful -- can't wait to see you on your wedding day!  Much love to you and Shay!

YAC is back!

Now that the summer is over, people are back in town, and the church ministry year has started, Young Adult Connections is back up and running!

We had a kickoff brunch a couple Sundays ago, at the home of Tim and Lori Bentch -- tons of good food, some structured time of discussing and planning for the year, and a lot of great time just hanging out with fun people. :)


Carrie helping to prep desserts


Mary, Thomas, Tim and David -- part of the indoor half of the group


And the other half of the group eating outside


Tim, Dave and Phil


Lovely ladies --Lis, Carrie, Milla and Christina

And then the following Sunday (last week), Phil and Dave hosted a YAC brunch of their own after church. The invitation said that soup would be served, and that we could bring side dishes or desserts if we wanted to contribute.

And wow, was soup ever served.

I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of this event, but there were probably about 20 people there, and four different kinds of amazing homemade soup -- sweet potato, chicken and white bean, and other scrumptious deliciousness. Dave is a gourmet, and his roommate Phil is certainly no slouch in the kitchen... I feel like I say this all the time, and it's becoming a bit of a cliche, but really, good times were had by all. :)

And finally, this coming Saturday, David and I are hosting a YAC Halloween party. We'll be sure to take tons of pictures!

It's just so wonderful to see this ministry flourishing and growing. Every single time we throw an event, we get a number of newcomers who express interest in joining a small group and being included on the YAC email list. (We've started a whole new small group for young professionals in the area, and we're planning to start another grad student group this fall.) And it's also really exciting to see others stepping up and planning/hosting events -- with the Halloween party, it'll be three YAC events in four weeks, only one of which David and I had primarily responsibility for. There has always been a felt need in this demographic for community -- and we're so thankful to have so many great people coming alongside us to help provide that community!

Lazy Busy Sunday

Apologies for the long blog silence -- it's been my turn to deal with a nasty cold bug for the last week or so. It's not as bad as what David had, but it's been enough head and chest congestion to make me want to spend my evenings curled up on the couch or in bed, and all non-essential internet pastimes have fallen by the wayside...

But rest assured that even sickness won't stop us from having super busy schedules!

This past Sunday, we had been invited to five different engagements. Breakfast with friends before church, YAC brunch after church, a lunch in honor of a friend's ordination, a party in Philly celebrating the birth of the first child of some friends of ours, and a dinner with friends from one of our small groups.

We unfortunately couldn't make it to all of these events -- we're crazy, but we're not quite that crazy.

We ended up going to the YAC brunch (since, you know, we're helping to lead this ministry), and to the ordination lunch immediately thereafter. And, of course, we took tons of pictures!


YAC Brunch:

This brunch was the first of what we hope to be a regular feature -- brunch with the young adults, after church, every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month. This week, we had a pancakes and waffles brunch at Wilson House (which is where we had our Superbowl party).

Battle stations ready!

Never too many chefs in the kitchen with these fun folks!

One of the groups of brunch-eaters

Mmmm, waffles...

Two of the coordinators of this brunch, Mimi and Carrie

It's so fun to see this group beginning to coalesce, and to have these outlets for community and fellowship!


Chris' Ordination Lunch:

David and I had to leave the brunch early to get over to the lunch in honor of the ordination of Chris Sallade. Chris is one of David's coworkers on staff with PEF, and he and his wife, Danielle, are dear friends of ours. So of course we were going to be there with them on this momentous occasion!

Chris with his mentor from Trinity, Dr. Greg Scharf

Pastor Matt of Westerly, and Dr. Scharf

Just some of the amazing spread

Chris' 6-year-old daughter was, of course, appropriately solemn for the occasion

And at no point did his 4-year-old son need to be soothed with jelly beans

Extended family in town for the ordination

Many blessings on you, Rev. Sallade!

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!