Albertville, AL
We've just wrapped up a great family visit here in Albertville, AL. Tomorrow, we head for Florida, a trip we'll do in two segments.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were easy days with a simple pattern. We slept in, had "coffee and" in the morning, relaxed in the afternoon, had a nice dinner, and turned in early. Not a bad life. Tuesday evening, we made wings and margaritas, with the wings in four different sauces (Buffalo, barbeque, "Dreamland", and teriyaki). Margaritas were on the mild side (not George-a-ritas) as we didn't have all the liqueurs, but they were good nonetheless. Wednesday night, Rick made a pot of Chili.
Merlin and Maya Lynn also got to meet new friends. Rick and Annette have a new dog, Abby, who is a 9-month old English Springer Spaniel (I think that's right). Abby is a great dog but doesn't quite realize how big she's gotten in the last few months. We also met Dozer, a black Cocker Spaniel who is nominally attached to Alyson & Henry (her boyfriend) but living for now with Annette's mother and father. Dozer had a "sleepover" with Abby while Annette's parents headed to Florida for Christmas, so it's been a foursome most of the week. They've been getting along reasonably well, all things considered.
The weather was pleasant and mild, but we knew it wouldn't last. Thursday dawned cloudy and the wind kept increasing during the day. By late in the day, the rain began, and it poured for hours, before it turned cold - ouch!
It being Christmas Eve, Rick focused us on a "traditional" holiday dinner as done in our family when we were growing up. Since our father's parents were from Sweden, the "big" celebration was always Christmas Eve. We had Swedish Meatballs (Geri pitched in here), ham, mashed and scalloped potatoes, slow-baked beans, and a special dessert of pineapple tort. OK, we didn't have the pickled herring and "silta" (a pressed, cured pork dish), but we did pretty well.
Christmas was low-key for the most part, with gifts in the morning after coffee, snacking on leftovers in the afternoon, and another team-effort dinner with Rick making a stuffed pork loin to match with Geri's famous "Grandma Reds" potatoes. Things got a bit boisterous in the evening as Geri and I learned to play "Push-Pull Rummy", a six-handed, three-deck, cutthroat game with no mercy. We also learned that spouses and siblings must be separated during these games.
Today, we wrapped up our visit since we'll be heading out early tomorrow for Florida. We played with Skype (Rick and Alyson got webcams as gifts), lost a few games of Scrabble, and made another major dent in the leftovers for dinner. After another game of Push-Pull Rummy (total domination by Alyson), we called it an early night.
Below: Abby finds some sanctuary, Maya and Dozer are ready to go out and chase the cat, and Merlin crashes on Christmas night...
No comments:
Post a Comment