So we threw a little going away party for our friends Josh and Cristen, along with much help from the other members of our Bible study group. You've already seen the prep work, these are the results. Everything turned out quite wonderfully thanks to everyone's help. Thank God the weather cooperated and made for a fabulous evening (no rain).

With our friends leaving the area and headed to NC, we decided to do a mostly Boston-themed evening with a little touch of the South.

Here's how we made that happen.
Boston theme:
We asked all guests to wear some Boston attire, whether sports team, school or other Boston-specific gear.
We used our Boston-area fresh organic farm-raised veggies for a veggie platter: zucchini, squash, carrots, and cucumbers (okay really we just said we'd do something veggie-related and we happened to have all this, and well, it is from the Boston area):We had Boston clam chowder (Thanks, David & Jamie)
Beer served was Sam Adams summer mix pack and Harpoon IPA (both Boston-brewed)
We had Boston baked beans
For dessert there was Boston cream pie (mmm) (Thanks, Ben & Ruthie)
A 2-disc special edition Boston music cd was created and played during the party (Thanks, Philip & Emily)

Southern theme:
I grilled us some barbecue chicken (Costco meat this time, we needed lots) -- legs, thighs, and breasts -- done pretty much exactly as I've just recently learned how and talked about before. Our guests were quite complimentary. Side note -- we used all of our Rendezvous seasoning. Oh, look there, I see we can purchase it right from that website. handy.
I prepared 2 gallons of sweet Southern tea, diluted a bit so the Northerners could handle it.

Separately, we also had more raw veggies -- broccoli and califlower and celery -- some guacamole, little skewers with mozzarella, tomatoes, prosciutto, and fresh basil (from our farm share), and champagne for toasts (thanks, Ruth).

Additionally, we broke a few electrical codes in stringing 3 extension cords in series from our kitchen window, so that we could connect some Christmas lights and these little paper balls with lights in them: We also finally used tiki torches we've owned for 2 years Nothing caught on fire. Really a great evening with friends, some of whom we're going to miss very much, very soon.

And now, more pictures: