This past weekend was just exceptional! Actually, it started on Thursday. Dear Husband and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. I have to admit that I didn’t realize it was our anniversary until the UPS man delivered flowers.
“Flowers?” “Wait, what date is it…?” And then I realized I’d almost forgotten our anniversary. The flowers were from my sister, Frankie, who sent them by way of thanks for nine thank you notes I sent her. I was only nine months late in getting out Christmas thanks, and five months late in doing Easter thanks, but she rewarded me for my hand written efforts with the most beautiful bouquet of coral roses with a lime green foliage and golden rod. The flowers are just exceptional!
So, I sailed into the weekend on a high, having gone to dinner with DH Thursday night, just a laid back meal at a local Mexican place, and then a trip to visit one of his job sites. *G*
Saturday, very early, DH went off to sail and I got ready for family and friends to join us for dinner. Frankie and her husband and their wonder dog Sydney arrived close to 1:00, and a friend of theirs from Wisconsin found his way to us shortly after that. Frankie helped me in the kitchen, getting things underway to make eggplant Parmesan. She also took over the work on the silk flower arrangement on the foyer table. I had flowers I wanted to work with, but couldn’t get the ratio of flower and container right. I’ll take a picture of it and post it later.
Our oldest sister, My-Sister-The-Nurse, brought her husband and one of her 20-something grandsons to the house shortly after 4:00, and she set up a fabulous appetizer layout for us to nosh on. We continued to pull things together for dinner so that the eight of us were ready to eat on the stroke of six!
Eggplant and Chicken Parmesan, Vermicelli with red sauce, green salad, foccacia and pugliese breads, followed by pumpkin pie. I was going to offer more desserts, but we figured everyone would be stuffed with dinner. I had two-thirds of a pan of the eggplant left, and that’s what we had for dinner tonight!
The conversation and laughter at the table was fabulous. We talked about television humor today and what was on when we were kids. Our youngest family member, who has spent most of his growing years in London or Perth, Australia, didn’t know the names: Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Bill Cosby or Jackie Gleason. We were trying to decide what was missing in what they call “comedy” today, and along the way a lot of silly jokes were tossed around.
All of Saturday was in preparation for our attending the dedication of a tree at church in Mother’s memory. We attended church, and were blessed with sunshine just before we stepped out for the dedication. Mother’s best friend brought red ribbons for us to tie on the branches. Mother’s favorite color was red. She would have loved it!
And, the Empty Nesters invited us to join them in their monthly pot luck. I took a raspberry pretzel salad, coleslaw and broccoli slaw to share. Those ladies know how to put on a yummy meal. I need to get the recipe for the fruit salsa!
It was just a great weekend. That feeling has continued today despite the rain. I’m coasting on the joy of spending time with family and friends and just having a darned good time! I hope putting together Thanksgiving will be this much fun!