S2 - Game 1, 2, & 3

GAME ONE
For the first game, participants were given a list of houses.  They had to find things in real life that represented various house sigils and take a picture of it.  Again, I appointed my parents as judges.  I did not give them any pictures to compare, but I did give them explanations as to what the different sigils were.

(pictures coming later)

GAME TWO
The second game was a round of the Game of Thrones Living Card Game.  I must admit, this was only the second time my family and I tried to play this game, and we stink.  I'm going to have to find someone who actually knows how to play and learn!

GAME THREE
The third "event" was simply a crossword puzzle that I designed to also refresh people's memories about the first season.

Game of Food for S2

I ended up cooking two meals because people came to the party in shifts; this meant that not everyone participated in all games, but more on that in later posts.

Because I am completely unoriginal where food is concerned, I turned to the internet and found Inn at the Crossroads.  What a great site!  Who didn't want to try some of the food GRRM describes (in such detail)?  I also love that the recipes are referenced by book.

Luckily, the people at IatC have a great variety of dishes to try.  Some of the recipes even have a Middle Ages version vs. a version people might try today.  Some of the food is waaaay over the top for me... I am in NO WAY a foodie so I have to find easy stuff to make.  Anyway, there are lots of great pics too.

PS: If anyone wants to send me a copy of IatC's official book, I would really love it.  Thanks.  :D

Meal #1

Breakfast (brunch) at Winterfell

We had soft-boiled eggs, sharp cheese, some expensive bacon, and fresh bread (purchased, not made!) with honey and jellies.

To the right is a picture of the aftermath.

I had never made soft-boiled eggs before, and some of them did turn out to be a little bit more hard-boiled than I intended.  Still good and simple!



Meal #2

Meal two was a bit more involved only because of the chicken.  It was the first time I have ever used a rotisserie chicken (and I used three), and it was a pretty cool experience.

Honeyed Chicken
Spinach and Mushroom Salad
Baked Potatoes
Lemon Cookies (spoiler alert... These were the worst freaking cookies I ever made, and it was totally my fault for using too much flour. You can see them in the middle of the table.  They're the white lumps that merge into one big white pile of crap.)
Meade


Anyway, here's a pic of before.  The "after" picture is just too messy.

I have to admit, while it was fun having some meade in those cool goblets my dad owns, I REALLY didn't like the taste of the stuff.  We'll be passing next time.

S2 Invites

Last year, I sent this in an envelope to my guests:

I printed them out, chose a different direwolf for everyone, and mailed them out without specifying where to send RSVP's.  Somehow, everyone knew...


After a couple weeks, we all were sitting around the table at my parents' house when I presented everyone with the following scrolls:

I got a little bit more creative with the scrolls, deciding to age the paper a bit.    I used thicker ivory resume paper.  I did not cook the paper in the oven, but I did take a lighter to the edges while each sheet was still wet.

The second scroll introduced the first game for the day, actually a pregame.  I convinced my parents to act as judges because they're the perfect combo; Mom does NOT like the show and doesn't have any preconceived notions, and Dad likes the show and has read the books.

Inception

I have always loved dragons, knights, and wolves.  When I found George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire when I was in college, I was convinced that there could not be a better story or characters in the world.  Fortunately, I wasn't the only one!

I have been enthusiastically watching HBO's Game of Thrones, and I was able to convince most of my family as well as some of my friends to join me.  Now, several of them have picked up the books as well, but I'm not sure anyone I know is quite as obsessed.

When the premiere date for season 2 was announced last year, I read various Facebook posts, Tweets, and Blogs about parties people were having.  I had also been reading about all the promos HBO had done for both the first and second season and wished that I was close enough to New York, Los Angeles, or even London to see everything first hand.  It didn't take long for me to realize that in order to participate in a GoT Event, I would have to create one myself.

Day of Thrones was born.