Saturday, Nov. 20

We had an especially good day today, because family came to visit.

We were up at 6 a.m. to prepare two beef roast for slow cookers. Mother came over while I was doing this, and we did a few other things related to lunch, before Hubbie and I had breakfast and got ready for the day.

I decided another dish or two would be in order for lunch, and decided to make a recipe of hot corn ( shoe peg corn baked with cream cheese and green chilies), and coleslaw. I had the ingredients for the hot corn, but no slaw mix. So Hubbie went to a grocery store for the slaw, as well as a few other food items. He brought back a very small bag of slaw mix, though, and I thought it wouldn't be enough. So I accompanied him back to the store to get another package, and cans of black olives for the pickle tray.

Son, Daughter-in-Law, Grandson and his girlfriend and her 18-month old baby arrived around 10 a.m. Granddaughter and her new friend, arrived around 11:30.

Hubbie had caged the male cat in the sunroom, but the two females were loose when family arrived. They immediately became frantic and ran to hide. Hubbie eventually coaxed them out and put them in the cage, too. They definitely seemed more content once they were caged and away from strangers.

Mother and I continued with lunch preparations while we visited with family. We all sat down to our feast around noon. Everyone seemed to like the beef roast (slow cooked in coffee and spices) with carrots and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, hot corn, coleslaw, fruit salad, and yeast bread. Daughter-in-Law brought a German chocolate cake (a favorite of mine) for dessert, and it was yummy.

We had a wonderful visit with everyone. We really like Grandson's girlfriend and her very cute baby girl, and Granddaughter's new, very handsome and well-mannered friend. We hope to see more of them.

Before the grandkids left mid-afternoon, we gathered in the yard for group photos. We were glad that Son and Daughter-in-Law could stay longer. They left around 4:30 for the two-hour trip to their hometown, where they were to pick up our other young teenage Grandson, who was staying with friends for a couple of days to go duck hunting.

This was Grandson's first experience with duck hunting, but he shot a couple of them. He's destined to become an avid hunter, I guess...he's scheduled to go deer hunting with his dad during Thanksgiving weekend. The youth hunt is sponsored by our state's game and fish commission, which selects only 500 adult/youth applicants to hunt in a special area.

After everyone left, Mother went home, and Hubbie and I relaxed in front of TV. Around 8 p.m., we watched our favorite football team play to a nail-biter win in double overtime. The game actually began at 6 p.m., but I recorded it on DVR, so we could wait a while to watch it.

Funny: one of our female cats has become fascinated with the TV. She watches the images intently, and reaches out to touch the hands and faces of people, or tries to grasp objects, like women's earrings, and policemen's badges. From time-to-time, she goes behind the screen and paws the back of the TV, trying to figure out how the people got in there.

Mother said her cat watches TV sometimes, too, but only when animals are featured.