The day after Thanksgiving we got to attend our very first oyster roast given by Aaron and Sara. Now, these things are a big deal. Aaron built a special table just for the event. Bushels of oysters were bought. Aaron's brother, Brent, came in and brought a huge 55 gallon metal drum to use for a fire so we could stay nice and toasty while waiting for the oysters to cook. I'm telling you, it is a big deal. And never, under any circumstance, make the mistake of calling it a 'clam bake' because you may get cut out of the will. Fortunately, I wasn't in the will when I said it. Ooops.

Sara and Aaron had invited about 20 friends and family for the event. (I'm pretty sure we fall under both groups. :) The night was freezing but clear and as the oysters cooked we found ourselves moving in small circles as we heated the front of our bodies while our backs froze and then we'd flip to thaw out our backs. Sara had a huge spread of food to occupy us in between shucking oysters. Aaron and his brother promised us at least a mild taste of redneck-ness by setting up two out-houses.

One for the boys.

And one for the girls.
Now...obviously, the girls bathroom was never used. But I did hear that the boy's one was used a couple of times. Thankfully, I never had to witness it.

And now to business. Shucking oysters.


Brent would steam them and then dump them on the table. Then you put on a glove, take the piping hot oyster and knife and slice open the oyster shell. After that all you had to do was cut out the oyster with the knife and eat if off the blade.
After you ate the oyster you just toss the shell in the hole in the table and start again. I think there were about 6 bushels of oysters all together and I can't even begin to remember how many I personally ate. I did decide that there were two types of oysters. The chewy well-cooked kind and the slurpy wet kind. I'm only a fan of the chewy kind. And although I had plenty of great experience shucking oysters at the Pearl Factory (hee hee) I found that shucking oysters that weren't soaked in alcohol for weeks at a time are quite a bit tougher to pry open. Don't worry, though, I'm a quick learner. Not much comes between me and food.

Here are the Weltz brother in charge of the mêlé. After most of the oysters were consumed the men went on to play a Finnish game called Mölkky which was really fun. Little wood stumps were number 1 through 12 and you'd throw a separate small log at the numbered ones. If you hit more that one stump at a time then each stump is worth one point. If you only hit one stump down then you get the number on the stump for your points. After your turn each log is set up again in the place it was hit to. I know you wanted all of these details. Don't pretend like you got bored in my extra long description of the game. I know you loved it.
Every few minutes they'd have to come back and warm up. While we were waiting by the fire, Brent & Sara told us all sorts of scary ghost stories. By the end of the night nobody wanted to go home. I can't wait for the next clam bake....oh, I mean, oyster roast.