After we stuffed our faces I had to take over the kitchen to clean up because don'tcha know Joanie can do it herself!!! Yeah well, so can I. We told her since she cooked, we clean. End of discussion. I can be stubborn too.
Keith popped over for a visit soon after we finished and brought us another watch to share that he'd worked on. It was an early 1900's Monarch pocket watch. It had 4 oz of silver around the face and 4 oz of silver chain. It was quite heavy. He's really into watches and buys old ones at auctions and on ebay and gets them cleaned up and working again. Sometimes selling them and sometimes adding them to his collection. Of course he had a number of stories to share and we had some good laughs and visited until Lynne popped over to taxi us to her house for dinner.
She set out all kinds of nibbles: pickled hot peppers, bruschetta, crisps with dips, stuffed peppers. When I connected to her wifi I started getting texts from Mikey and Cari. Mikey was telling me, "Don't eat the snacks!!! I know what's coming after that! I sat at the table!! Don't eat the snacks!" LOL So we started slowing down. He was right. Holy cow they know how to put out a spread.
I walked out back to have a look at Lynne's garden and was blown away at all her fuchsias. They plant them in their yards here, not in pots like we do. Apparently they thrive ... Look at 'em!!
In the meantime James (son #1) and Kirsty (wife) arrived with the kids, Matthew (3 years) and Amelia (14 months). Lovely family. Matthew is a wonderfully bright, inquisitive and friendly child. He cuddled up to Bob to show him how to play Angry Birds and get the most points. Was adorable. Poor little Amelia had a bit of a cold and wasn't feeling her best but she was still a cute little thing. She's just started walking and at times still preferred to scoot on her bum. Lynne had gone to pick up Steven (son #2) since Kerrie (girlfriend) was working. What fun to see family dynamics in motion at the dinner table. The chaos and bantering back and forth was quite entertaining. And OMG does Lynne know how to put a spread out!!! There was so much food some of it had to be taken away after being served to make room for more coming out. This is what it can remember (I've probably forgotten something):
Roast
potatoes
broccoli
beans
carrots
zuchinni (corzhet)
Yorkshire pudding
suet pudding
gravy
Wine, wine, wine and wine
We ate and ate and ate. Still they asked,"Don't you want more?" Amazingly there was very little food leftover. It didn't take long to pick that up and bring dessert out. Oh yeah, I had seen the dessert. I knew I wanted some. Didn't know how I was going to eat it thought. Ummm, they had the answer to that as well. Calvados. It's a liqueur that helps to settle your food to make room for more!!! Just what I need, eh? LOL Steven poured and we all threw it back!!! Must've worked because we then killed all but a wee but of that gorgeous dessert!!
And herei thought we must be done, right? Hahahahaha. Nope ... Then came the Irish coffee laced with liqueur (I had Drambouie in mine) and cream. For real? Sigh. Ok. Once again my arm was twisted. And Bob? He doesn't drink coffee so he just had another glass of wine. And a shot of Drambui I learned how to pour the cream on top of the coffee and keep it from sinking to the bottom. Very cool. :)
I know you aren't gonna believe I've this part because I didn't either. They brought out even more food!!!!! What the bloody hell? LOL. Biscuits and cheese started making their way around the table. How many courses is this meal? Bob and I just sat and watched in fascination. Then Bob had to ask ... What kind of liqueur they had. ... James was sitting next to the liqueur cabinet and started pulling bottles out. And pulling bottles out. And pulling bottles out. They just kept coming!! I asked if the little corner cabinet was like Hermoine's bag in Harry Potter. It seemed to hold way more than it looked capable of.
They do believe I choices don't they? I guess they'll starve if they come see us!! We just don't typically eat meals like that. Special occasions come the closest - Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. But this was just a typical Sunday Dinner!! They do this every Sunday!! We were impressed. Very impressed. Oh, and I forgot to mention that most of the veggies on the table were grown from Lynne's allotment (plot of land she rents to grow veggies on). How cool is that? Can't get any fresher, can you?
The baby was tired so James and Kirsty left, with Steven and Kerrie not far behind them. We hung out at the table for another hour or so of laughing and drinking, trading insults and gaining new information (oh you won't believe the goods I learned!). Cari was texting me with the updates from both the Redskins game and the Cowboys game. Both teams won!!! That's different!! There were lots of laughter, jokes and ribbing going around the table. Lynne kept holding up an imaginary pair of knickers just to make me lose it all over again. It usually worked. LOL
Eventually all good things must come to an end so we called a taxi to take us back to Joan's. After changing and getting ready for bed we went back downstairs to end the night visiting with Joan until our eyes started closing. It was almost 11:00 by then and we were getting up early in morning. Terry is giving us a ride to the train station to Bath. We'll be out of Joan's hair for the day and give her a break.
Nighty night!!
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