The Feast

 My brother-in-law, Ronald, is the master of breakfast. With him breakfast is not a quick eat and run meal, but one to be lingered over after you eat with coffee to sip and watch others enjoy the fruits of his labor. While I am not a breakfast person, he is quite entertaining as he prepares your eggs to your liking. 

I was waiting for the feast to come. My neice, Tara was hosting the dinner at her house, only eight houses down. Some of the dishes were cooked at her mom's house and transported down to hers. Two turkeys were being fried and one was roasted. Ham was also on the menu. A table full of pies and whipped cream awaited those who left room for desert.

It is always the side dishes that steal the show for me and there was no lack of choices at this meal. My only contribution (besides my appetite) was stirring the gravy as it thickened. We all stood and sat in a sort of circle while 4 year old Hollis sang a prayer. After a few false starts having nothing to do with shyness on his part, his mom forced him to get the job done by beginning her own prayer. This boy knows how to build suspence and cater to a crowd. I hope he channels this into an interesting career one day. 

The line began in the kitchen and ended at the tables by the pool. Yes, we ate poolside and the weather was perfect. I was so proud of my baby girl, Adrienne, for not insisting the meal was not complete without her beloved mashed potatoes! I made them every Thangsgiving at her insistance. I always argued there were not necessary because we had dressing. She is probably the only person in the world who can out-argue me and get the last word. I wonder where she got that attitude from? She does not look at all like me, in fact she looks just like her Aunt Pam. I gave birth to my sister-in-law's look alike!

We had so many side dishes and I took a small serving of as many would fit on my plate. My favorite was the collard greens, not to be outdone by the cauliflower casserole. There was sweet potato casserole, dressing, gravy, black-eyed peas, rice, and some dishes I had no room for on my plate. My joy was watching my grandson eat southern traditional foods for the first time and go back for more. My memory fails me as to the other dishes right now.

Must be getting old. I wonder why we say that. No one is getting younger! It was a wonderful, relaxing day with family. Remember the pool? As we were all finishing our meals and moving around and chatting with one another, Adrienne and I were sitting at a little table on the other side of the pool, when Hollis appeared in his swimming attire. No, the pool is not heated.

He was arguing with his mom about going for a swim. She told him the water was too cold. He insisted that he could still go in, he had a snorkel and everything. Tara suggested he stick his feet in and see how cold the water was. He did that and asked for some socks. She tried to explain that socks would not help when they got wet. Adrienne and I turned back to our conversation and suddenly he jumped in!

His little face was priceless!  As Tara stripped off hs wet clothes and wrapped him in a towel he, he said "I shouldn't a did that!". 

As the temperature began to drop and people began to disappear, we all made our way back down the street to the house where the day started. HeWho and I were ready to say our final goodbyes as we planned to head north the next morning. His sister had other plans. She wanted a family picture the next day. I left her to convince my husband to delay our trip back, all the while knowing I could easily have Gavin ask him and he would do it.

Much discussion ensued about the time of day this photo shoot would happen. Talk of the location of the sun and then about others schedules and we landed on 9:30 am. We arrived back in plenty of time. Breakfast was happening in fits and starts as everyone was encouraged to hurry.  Gavin and his cousin borrowed shirts and suddenly everyone was loaded into many vehicles and we all met at the prescribed location where an old truck was parked fully decorated for Christmas. Many shots of squinting eyes in the sun, then lots of hugs goodbye and we were back in our car and back to the the RV park to finish loading up.

The trip home was uneventful. We stopped at a campground in Clarksville, TN we had stayed at before. Unable to open the slide in the living room after the collision with mountain that refused to move and no TV reception, we went to bed, got up the next day and we home early afternoon.

We are back to the same old, same old. Packing and wondering how all this stuff will fit in our new life. After two days of non-stop laundry you would think I was all caught up. Yesterday we sold HeWho's truck. This required the emptying of the truck and I will entertain you tomorrow with tales of that.