24-hour Reunion

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While we were texting, brother Bob and Beth realized that we were running out of time for them to see our grandsons David and Nathaniel. After a meeting in the morning, they drove from Winston Salem and had dinner with us. Using the props left from our “fine dining” experience, we ended with Nathaniel’s Brownies with ice cream on the side.

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For the foodies, we had cucumber with cream cheese, fresh dill, and lemon on crackers, shredded chicken with Mornay sauce over rice, peas, grape salad from neighbor Connie’s recipe, and the Brownies. I thought we had served this salad to them before. One of these times I’m going to take a photo of it, because it always disappears before the end of a meal. We knew we had not served it to them when Beth asked, “What is this that looks like eyeballs?”

The fellows worked on a jigsaw puzzle while waiting for the slide show of Beth and Bob’s recent trip to Europe. They had taken their oldest grandson to celebrate his graduation from high school.

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The next morning we enjoyed breakfast on the porch while it was still cool. I wanted a photo that included Beth without showing her face. She recently had surgery on her nose, which we were not featuring. For the record, she was wearing a band-aid that matched the bright blue of her top! Foodies, we ate summer oatmeal, bananas, and chocolate chip coffeecake.

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Nathaniel grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken-apple sausage, and Bavarian brats for lunch. I prepared slaw and served homemade lemon curd over bought pound cake. We also had time for a little music. Bob played the French horn for us. He has practiced daily since he began learning to play the instrument, and his diligence is showing results. I enjoyed accompanying him on the piano, because I sight-read the music and didn’t have to practice. With these few pictures and words, we will hold the memory of their special 24-hour visit.

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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44 thoughts on “24-hour Reunion”

  1. Thanks for the foodie comments:) what is this cucumber dish you speak of?
    Beth is remarkable if she can colour co-ordinate her bandaids- I’ve only managed once

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    1. Nathaniel made an appetizer with cucumbers filled with a cream cheese mixture atop a round of bread or round crackers. I think Beth just happened to have a colored bandaid that matched her outfit. With no young children around, we oldsters tend to have few bandaids hanging about the house.

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      1. Oh that appetizer does sound good! It actually sounds like a dinner treat I make myself regularly:)
        Haha in my business, bandaids are a hot commodity!

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    1. For summer oatmeal, you stir together equal parts rolled oats and Greek yogurt. Refrigerate overnight or longer. I often add non-calorie sweetener and vanilla extract before storing. Serve with jam, jelly, cinnamon, raisins, chocolate chips, cardamom, nuts, fresh fruit — anything you can think of. My brother used to add hot chocolate powder to his cereal, and that would work for the oatmeal. John and Nathaniel were the two who ate it most.

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      1. Like your friends from Long Island who were only here for the day (she brought you the red hat and John did a quick turnaround to bring them to your home, then returned them not too many hours later).

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          1. I remember you had a small window of opportunity to visit. My high school friend Carol married a few years out of high school and moved away from Lincoln Park. I lost touch with her and saw a mutual friend at the grocery story who told me Carol had passed away from ovarian cancer. I was shocked. I had been to her house while in high school and met her mom and sister but didn’t know them well enough to pay a social call. When I got on Facebook, you know how you plug in your high school name and graduation year, hometown, etc. … well, I did that and Facebook started giving me friend suggestions, all whom had moved out of state (another one is Cheryl who lives in Cary, NC). Well, one of the suggestions was Carol McCrellias. Once again I was shocked. I was new to Facebook and I searched for her name, but she, like me, doesn’t use a photo for her profile pic. So I sent a friend request – it turned out that she had cancer, and had a hysterectomy but that was it – still alive and kickin’. We’ve kept in touch on Facebook, but when her mom died suddenly from a stroke in 2012, she came to Lincoln Park for the funeral. I called her at the house the night they arrived and said “I’ll just talk a few minutes, wanted to tell you I’m sorry and you’ve had a long trip” … that was 6:30 and at 1:30 a.m. we finally got off the phone. We were non-stop and I had “earitis” by the time I was done. My canary gave up on going to bed, and put his head under his wing and went to sleep,

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              1. Yes, non-stop no less. Her husband drove in from NC – he works in NC, and has done so for several years now after getting laid off from GM in NY. So, he had driven in from NC and was fast asleep on the couch, next to her sister, also fast asleep and we kept talking.

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  12. I love the peek you gave us into your dinner and enjoyed the view from the back porch. What a lovely place to relax and savor, not just good food, but the company of family and friends.

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  13. Am drooling again.
    Listen up: next time you guys make music, someone should video it on their phone and then you could upload it here for our enjoyment! Whaddya say?

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