Saturday, Feb. 26

We had a great day visiting family at Son and Daughter-in-Law's house about two hours south of us. About forty-three of us gathered to visit and celebrate February birthdays. About half of that number were children and babies. We arrived at Son's house around 10:30 a.m., and already several families were there. By 11:30, most everyone had arrived.

Sis and I heated the soups and the barbecue, while our other Daughter-in-Law prepared deli meat and cheese trays. By noon, we were ready to enjoy lunch. Today, the potato and chicken noodle soups seemed to be most popular.

For dessert, Mother had made chocolate and white cupcakes, and Sis brought a warm-from-the-oven peach cobbler. Daughter-in-Law brought three choices of ice cream.

Shortly after lunch, Son asked for our attention so he could announce that Grandson and his fiance' are joyfully expecting a child, and a wedding is being planned. Before the year is out, then, we will add three more great-grandchildren to our list, making a total of 27.

Around 3 p.m., families were ready to leave, so we gathered in the yard to snap a few pictures of our large group. Afterward, we loaded our stuff in the van and headed home.

Got back about 5 p.m. We decided we'd like to go to a local magnet school for a community international night, which began at 6 p.m. So I heated the chicken noodle soup from lunch and put it in a slow cooker to take to the event as our contribution to the potluck supper. Each family was asked to bring an international dish...obviously, ours was plain old American.

I noted on the tag that is was a low-sodium soup, so I really didn't expect many folks to want it, with all the other spicy dishes available, but at the end of meal there was nothing left of it but a few noodles on the bottom of the pot.

The three of us chose samples of dishes from other countries. Naturally there were several Mexican dishes, and a few Chinese ones, but there were also some other interesting ones, like one made of cactus, which was pretty good. There was a type of stew from Guatemala, but it looked greasy, so we didn't try it.

Folks were encouraged to dress in native attire, and several did, which made for a colorful gathering. While dinner was going on, there was a slide show of the countries represented in our very diverse community.

Once Mother and I had eaten, we toured the exhibit tables along the hall of the school. At one table, students were making block prints of oriental designs on rice paper. At another table, a woman was printing folks' names in Japanese on rice paper. Mother got a block print image and her name, and I got my name.

The Tibetan monks had an exhibit table, as did folks from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, and other places....all interesting.

Later, the local college Scottish bagpipers, followed by a contingent of students carrying flags of all nations, led the audience to the gym for a program. Thankfully, there was an elevator at the school to take us to the lower floor, saving Mother from having to use the stairs.

In the gym, we were seated on the front row, so Mother was able to see all the activities that included performances by the bagpipers; the Tibetan monks, who, in very elaborate costumes, performed what was called the black hat dance; a group of students from the same college as the bagpipers, who performed an interesting Japanese dance using hand clackers; a young male singer from the Dominican Republic, who was obviously popular with the large Hispanic crowd that attended, and an Ozark "flat foot" dancer (similar to clogging).

The event ended at 9 p.m. Back home, Hubbie and I watched our favorite basketball team play to a nail-biter win. I'd recorded the game on DVR while we were gone today. The game ended around 10:30.

It was a long, but very happy day.