July 4th BBQ at Home

At first, Tom wanted to throw a house warming party along with it. I dragged my feet as I was so not prepared for any kind of entertaining. Of course, Tom’s only work on any party is to tell me who he wants there and get the ice & drinks for the ice chest. And I being the wife, the executive assistance, the host, the cook, the maid, pretty much took care the rest of works that goes with prepping for a party…Yes, so so so not prepare since the house still needs work….

So the invite went out like two weeks before the weekend, and being a popular summer holiday, most invitees already had other plans. So we postponed the housewarming party until later, and just reserved this weekend for a causal small gathering with the immediate family because I could pretty much serve anything I like and I didn’t even have to change or put makeup on!!! Secretly, I was thankful not have to do it.

The Tams & the Chows came over, along with couple cousins from the Tams, who were down here to assist with the Tams’ move from Minnesota to California. During the day, the kids ran around the house, the adults played mahjong. Tom is totally into the game. He was so so proud of his wining that he wanted a picture to show his sister to get the proper scoring…..yes, a big kid.

Here is mom setting up the mahjong table on the deck.

Tom’s wining hand at mahjong.

The gangs around the big dining table. I didn't take pictures of the food. I remember we had yummy chicken wings and spare ribs (after 3.5 hours in the oven at 300 C, the meat was falling off the bones...) Yum....

We caught a funny piece with the kids. As I said the house was not truly ready yet for entertaining. Tom has his big TV in the living room, but we haven’t hooked up the DVD player. So when the kids were screaming for a movie, Tony put the DVD in a little DVD player. The contrast between the big TV and the tiny DVD player is so hilarious. But the kids didn’t care; they had fun either way…. Look carefully, you can see the big TV in the background.

Finally, here is a shot of the fireworks from our deck, taken by Tom’s shaky hand….