Power-outage party

We hosted my parents, grandmas and Aunt Stephanie for dinner on Sunday (Ben was there, too, but he was actually staying with us for the week), just in time for the remnants of Hurricane Ike to sweep through in the form of a huge windstorm and knock out our power for the night! So my first dinner party at the new house didn't go exactly as planned, but we made the best of it. And really, I can't complain, because our power was only out until Monday afternoon, while my parents didn't get power back until Wednesday and Jason's mom is still in the dark.

Luckily, I had decided to make a roasted pork loin and apples dish in the crock pot so I could get all the work out of the way in the morning, so even though the power went out at about 4, the pot stayed hot and continued cooking and the meat was finished by dinner time. The side dishes hadn't gone in the oven yet, so they were all casualties, but we did have a salad and a loaf of bread to round out the meal, plus pie and lots of ice cream -- we had to eat it all before it melted!

After dinner, we lit some candles and sat around in the dark and talked. As you can see from the book on the table, we discussed our family's favorite subject of the last several months -- baby names. Jason and I are still at an impasse, even after another very thorough discussion.

Jason and Grandma Carol

After everyone packed up and headed back to Fairfield to assess the damage there, Jason and Ben and I played a nice long game of Monopoly by candlelight. Jason beat us terribly. Darn those orange properties!!

Anyway, like I said, we were very lucky to come through the storm with little damage. Entire trees and huge limbs were knocked down in the yards all around us, but we didn't lose anything. We didn't have enough ice to keep the food in our fridge cold until the power came back, but luckily it was kind of empty to begin with, so we didn't end up having to throw away all that much.

And now it's pretty much guaranteed that our next party will go much more smoothly!