Chinese New Year Party

Place settings- Bamboo mats, gold gold chargers, Chinese paper products, chopsticks and colorful soup bowls

Maggie and Jeff Goebel

Jaclene and Trey Stewart

Chelsea and John Knudson

Allyson and Dave Gunnell (aka Waterboy)

Ginger and Josh Warner

Tracy and Adam Knowles

Kari and David Pectol

Stephanie and Ryan McMillan

Last night we had our first annual Chinese New Year party. We had seven couples plus us, all members of the Sierra Ranch Ward. The dinner officially began at 6:30, but most arrived late (which is totally fine and the norm with us Mormons). I was quickly trying to finish making the wontons for the Won Ton Soup. When we did sit down to eat. Everyone had their soup. Then salad and the main course and drinking cups were on the buffet bar.

Here was our Menu and it's chefs:
Won Ton Soup- Maggie
Oriental Chicken Salad- Chelsea (very good with torn up wontons and bean threads)
Cream Cheese Rangoons- Bro. Knowles (with our own personal tub from Jack in the Box of Sweet and Sour sauce)
Lettuce Wraps- Stephanie McMillan
Fried Rice- Jaclene Stewart
Chow Mein- Allison Gunnell (from Panda Express)
Asian Meatballs- Ginger Warner
Kung Pao Chicken, Orange Chicken, White and Fried Rice- Kari Pectol (from Panda Express)
Pie Crust Fortune Cookie with icecream- Maggie

Everything was so yummy. This is our second dinner party with Asian food, and it is quickly becoming my favorite theme just for the food! We had a lot of laughs about those who showed up with take out boxes from Panda Express. They were all good sports about it. Who doesn't love Panda Express? We visited as we ate and heard lots of stories. Then during dessert everyone opened their fortune cookie and each had a question to answer. We went around the room and everyone took a turn reading the question then telling us their answer. We learned a lot about everyone. There were some funny stories of how people met, and favorite dates they had been on together. I think the best story was Kari Pectol being kissed by her future husband in elementary school only because her dad gave the little boy permission to do it. And then they grew up and he married her! It was such a cute story.

The party ended a little before 9. I sent Jeff to go get the kids from the sitter as the party was wrapping up because David had been upset all day and we wanted to spare the Jorgensens some pain. We had a wonderful time and I look forward to having all these friends back in our home.

A special thanks to Bishop Gunnell for refilling our cups all night (and dousing my hand and Stephanies lap with water)
John Knudson tells us how he and his wife met as janitors at BYU

Bishop Gunnell tells a cool story about how he proposed to Allyson while she was blindfolded and he was on a cell phone... you had to hear him tell it... funny!

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