It was five minutes to six on Saturday March 19th when we knocked on the door to the home of Bob and Karen Morgan for their St Pats Day Party, the first LPR GTG in almost two years since COVID turned the world upside down. After a few minutes of Chico barking, Peter Ridgeway (Club President) answered the door and let us in. We knew there would be a few folks before us who get there early (you know who you are) and sure enough they were. Being the first GTG in a while, attendance was limited since the event was inside and you had to be vaccinated.
Walking inside, I first noticed the Irish music playing from the other room which immediately put us into a festive spirit. Dinner tables were tastefully decorated with green napkins, Irish beads and other green things. Bob was in the kitchen making final preparations getting seventeen pounds of Karen Morgan’s Almost Famous corned beef (5 of them!), seven pounds of carrots, and three heads of cabbage ready to move to the serving table.
There was a large bowl of Uncle Bill’s Green Irish Egg Nog near the wet bar area (recipes for the corned beef and Egg Nog are both in the LPR Cookbook). There was also a cooler full of Guinness and other beer, as well as Jamison’s and other Irish whiskeys for folks to consume. In true Irish spirit, there was no shortage of alcohol that I could see.
Shortly after 6pm all of the 19 guests (20 if you count Chico the Morgan’s dog) had arrived. Guests included Vince Vincent and Adrienne, Christina Vincent and her future husband Daniel (getting married later this year, Congratulations Christina!), John and Angie Reed, Bob and Deb Frostholm, Peter and Jacqueline Ridgeway, Doug and Dana Ambrisko, Sue and I, and new members Judi and Gerault Jones and Bill Weir (wife Kate was out of town visiting family). And of course our wonderful hosts Bob and Karen Morgan. Everyone was in a festive and friendly mood, visiting each other before and after dinner and John Reed was there to take lots of great pictures which you can see on the LPR website.
After chatting with Bob and asking if he needed any help, I made my way over to the table where the appetizers were. What immediately caught my eye was a very large platter of beautifully decorated deviled eggs with green filing, green parsley and carnations. After quickly placing three of these into my stomach I came to find out these were made by Jacqueline and they were becoming the hit of the appetizer scene. Before the night was over I would have two more of those little Devils!
The star of the show of course was the perfectly cooked Corned Beef and all the delicious food before and after dinner, which included spinach dip and bread from Sue, devilled eggs from Jacqueline, chips and dip from Bill, salad from Vince, Cole slaw from Angie, and roasted veggies from Dana. There was also a wonderful spread of dessert, including a carrot cake with cream cheese icing from Deb, green cupcakes from Christina, and tasty little cheesecakes from Judi.
After dinner and dessert, we all played an Irish trivia game than Karen Morgan resurrected from an earlier St Pats party back in 2008. I learned a few things from this quiz which included the facts that the oldest recorded vampire story comes from Ireland, the most popular surname is Murphy, the largest county is County Cork, and Irish pubs are even open on Christmas Day! And Karen even had a bonus question asking the names of her four nieces which all had proud Irish names. I can’t remember which team won the trivia contest but Angie Reed won the door prize which included two Guinness glasses.
About 10pm the party started to wind down and folks started leaving. No one left empty handed and came home with green gift bags from Karen which had an assortment of shirts, hats, beads, and other things to make the night memorable. Thanks very much to Bob and Karen Morgan for putting on a very successful and great St Patrick’s Day Party and hosting the first GTG in a very long time!
I swear, it was THIS big.
Irish flag – now that is some nice work!
Your hosts with the most!