settled in

Ah. Home sweet home. This weekend we celebrated our housewarming with a get-together of around +30 people. All in all, I think we broke in our home quite nicely. Thanks to all who came by to help us celebrate. I’m still getting the hang of the whole party organization chaos. A few kinks still plague me. If only I could evoke my Marta Stewart mojo.

Invitations were sent via e-vitation. We sent 40 invites through Goovite. I chose this invitation software because it was pretty basic, wasn’t littered with ads, guests don’t need to sign up and email address/invitations are erased 14 days after the party.

Still this form of invitation service is relatively new in our circles. The instructions to confirm were written in English, which also caused a potential problem. Alex presumed our German friends wouldn’t know the meaning of RSVP. But honestly, I didn’t know what the acronym stood for either until I found out that it is French: “répondez s’il vous plaît” for “please respond”. Do the French write RSVP on their invites?

In the end, the last standings for Goovite projected 7 yes’s, 1 maybe, and 2 nada’s..the rest just responded by email, confirmed with Alex or were tag-a-longs. I guess I’ll stick with good ol’ email until I can (or somebody nerdy and savyier) develop a similar system through my personal website.

Read Further for Party Highlights..

As usual, I focused on the food. Maybe too much. But I wanted people to eat – and eat well. We made lumpia and spinach pockets (thx Eva for the all the help); tomato, basil & kumat salad; mixed salad; thai noodle salad; bean dip; and a fruit salad. Trust me, I had more planned but ran out of time and steam.

For desert, I made a double chocolate terrine.. and double pan of chocolate cake with choco ganache. I know. I know. I went over board. Even throughout the evening we steamed shrimp and pork dumplings and with Mandy’s help, honey chicken tempura. Yummy.

The day before, Alex searched out good wine and run-away, stink cheese for the party. Every thing was gone by one in the morning. I think this was a good sign, oder? (one of those German words that commonly infiltrate into Expat-English. In this case it means, eh?)

Funny that so many guest expected to see boxes and bare walls. We aren’t done with the place by far but we know in a few days we won’t have time to be Bob Villa for the next 6 months. We have space but not that much for random boxes cluttering the walk ways. Knowing my track record it’s best to hang precious paintings. Besides we’re engineers and like to get our hands on power tools.

Our leaky toilet also survived the night. But it’s got to get fixed soon…sorry if any of you received a oyster squirt.

As you can see, this post lacks pictures of the party. Sorry. I guess you had to be there. The party also lacked good party music, which I am totally bummed about because that is my happy place. Blame it on my lack of delegating skills or the fact that Ubuntu Rhythmbox software wasn’t cutting it at the 11th hour. Next time. It’s on.

Other highlights: We received tons of wine. We need another party just to drink these bottles from all over the world. Somehow we missed out on Japanese sake?! jk

Party Guests:

Mr. Angelkötter; Mrs. Faust; Peter; Thierry; Holger; Christina, Rainer and Oliver; Eli and Scott, Sebastian & friends; Caro and Basti (ty for the couscous salad); Dave D and Carina (awesome blue bottle prosecco); Eva and Erwin (I love her cookies und gute Besserung); Jochen (lovely lila or-chi-dee); Bernhard & Rosi; Julie, Scott (I won’t forget now) and F; Max and Veronika; Mandy, Fabina, and Muffin dog (leave it to M to find a cake form in the shape of a house); Andrea, Alex, and Benjamin; Diana and F; Matthias and F; Cornelius and family’

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