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That's always a good sign at a family dinner: you leave when you have to...and regret it, but not so strongly as to ruin the experience. :) It was actually a lot of fun, although it was preceded by a bit of awkwardness.
Scott's parents showed up here at 11 (actually slightly before), wanting to go. But I'd been told noon - and that was the earliest I was covered after-hours. It turns out the meal was scheduled for 1 but gathering together was scheduled for noon and, as usual, there'd been confusion. So his parents and brother went up and he stayed here. (I can't find his aunt and uncle's house on my own....)
At noon precisely we left, my having called the two people covering for me, and we were up there by 12:30 (it's not that long a drive - I thought originally we were going to the other aunt/uncle's place, this one is much closer). However, though the meal was scheduled for 1 ... the ham had other ideas. The meal happened at 1:30. :) Thus, in many many ways, the confusion about time was a good thing. I didn't recognize it at the time it happened (since I was feeling bad about the confusion it induced for his parents, and feeling awkward, since I had no good way to repair the matter). But I'd have gotten bored and probably quite hungry, if we had gone up at 11 and arrived at 11:30 and not eaten until 1:30 (considering I snacked a bit between 11 and 12, plus the psychological effect of the delay).
It was very good. Ham, potatoes with cheese sauce, salad, rolls, beans, some sort of snack mix I didn't try, what they call "pink stuff" and I avoid like the plague (some sort of jello, cottage cheese, and a couple other things all mixed together - I tried it once, it had the most disturbing flavor). Dessert consisted of several kinds of cake and ice cream (mostly birthday cakes, as two of the children have birthdays around this time of year) but was put off till after the egg hunt in the interests of making sure that people could actually eat the food.
The egg hunt...what can I say? I like egg hunts with this family. They're insane. They've got a double lot up there, which means they have a pretty good back yard, and while the center area's grass, the edges are all plantings. We took plastic eggs with things in them, and some candy that wouldn't fit in the eggs, and hid it all over the back yard. This ranged from 'egg lying next to path plainly visible' to 'egg hidden in crotch of bush with stickery leaves; must reach in along one angle only to keep skin intact' to 'egg has been dropped into the bird feeder, which has then been closed again'.
Evil.
I love it. Hiding is the fun part. People got small candies (peanut butter cups) and one egg to sit in the tulips. Trees, plants, and bushes had candy and eggs tucked here and there, some more obvious than others. Scott's uncle lined all the cross-bars on the fences with Hershey's kisses, krackel bars, and Reese's peanut butter cups. However, particularly evil ones I noted were:
Yes, I'm easily amused. Still, it was fun.
Scott's cousin has a pool table in his room. I'm really impressed. Not by the pool table, but by the 'in his room' part. First, his room is large enough to hold his bed, some other gaming equipment, and the pool table, and not feel crowded, and let those inclined to play make their shots without worrying about walls or other objects interrupting. Secondly, it's a slate set and his room is upstairs. I think they're insane, but it's amusing and kinda cool and they're clearly pleased, so....
I watched that for a while and then a bunch of us (...mostly women/girls, now I think about it...) came downstairs and played a game of Apples to Apples. Scott (the only guy playing) won. Then I said my goodbyes, as it was just time for me to go to make it home in good time to resume the after-hours coverage when I said I would. When I left, Scott and the girls (his cousins) were making for the Playstation one of them got as part of her birthday presents, while his mother was headed back into the kitchen, I think.
I got directions on how to drive home. They sounded clear, but one of the roads I was following abruptly became something else and scared the heck out of me. I think I'd have been okay if I just kept going, but I panicked and doubled back, intending to return to the house and get better directions (the first part had been okay; I knew I could retrace it, 'cos I had street names and knew they applied).
However, I recognized a landmark from our drive in (Scott and I came in the long way, from town) and just kept going instead. I was able to get back to where I needed to be and out to the highway, even if I didn't take the 'easy' route I'd been given. I kinda wish I could have stayed longer, but I think Apples to Apples would have lost out to the Playstation (they had Lord of the Rings) anyway...and I would have lost interest then, so maybe it was just really good timing that I had enough time to enjoy myself, then jetted before the groups split out to things that didn't interest me.
I'm not sure how late they'll stay or whether they'll want to do anything else tonight, so I might end up doing stuff I choose or I might not.
And wonderfully, I'm good with it either way.
OH! Addendum: the picture I post this with, the sunlit creek? His aunt & uncle who own the camp where I took it were also at Easter dinner. I gave them both a physical print, and the file of it; they told me they used it on the back of their current brochure. Which is really kind of cool. It's a good shot.
Scott's parents showed up here at 11 (actually slightly before), wanting to go. But I'd been told noon - and that was the earliest I was covered after-hours. It turns out the meal was scheduled for 1 but gathering together was scheduled for noon and, as usual, there'd been confusion. So his parents and brother went up and he stayed here. (I can't find his aunt and uncle's house on my own....)
At noon precisely we left, my having called the two people covering for me, and we were up there by 12:30 (it's not that long a drive - I thought originally we were going to the other aunt/uncle's place, this one is much closer). However, though the meal was scheduled for 1 ... the ham had other ideas. The meal happened at 1:30. :) Thus, in many many ways, the confusion about time was a good thing. I didn't recognize it at the time it happened (since I was feeling bad about the confusion it induced for his parents, and feeling awkward, since I had no good way to repair the matter). But I'd have gotten bored and probably quite hungry, if we had gone up at 11 and arrived at 11:30 and not eaten until 1:30 (considering I snacked a bit between 11 and 12, plus the psychological effect of the delay).
It was very good. Ham, potatoes with cheese sauce, salad, rolls, beans, some sort of snack mix I didn't try, what they call "pink stuff" and I avoid like the plague (some sort of jello, cottage cheese, and a couple other things all mixed together - I tried it once, it had the most disturbing flavor). Dessert consisted of several kinds of cake and ice cream (mostly birthday cakes, as two of the children have birthdays around this time of year) but was put off till after the egg hunt in the interests of making sure that people could actually eat the food.
The egg hunt...what can I say? I like egg hunts with this family. They're insane. They've got a double lot up there, which means they have a pretty good back yard, and while the center area's grass, the edges are all plantings. We took plastic eggs with things in them, and some candy that wouldn't fit in the eggs, and hid it all over the back yard. This ranged from 'egg lying next to path plainly visible' to 'egg hidden in crotch of bush with stickery leaves; must reach in along one angle only to keep skin intact' to 'egg has been dropped into the bird feeder, which has then been closed again'.
Evil.
I love it. Hiding is the fun part. People got small candies (peanut butter cups) and one egg to sit in the tulips. Trees, plants, and bushes had candy and eggs tucked here and there, some more obvious than others. Scott's uncle lined all the cross-bars on the fences with Hershey's kisses, krackel bars, and Reese's peanut butter cups. However, particularly evil ones I noted were:
- Under the hose where it reaches the sprinkler head. (This was mine. I figure I can claim it was particularly evil since it was among the last ones found. Not counting any we forgot about and failed to locate at all, of course....)
- Inside the tulips.
- On a cross-bar...located under the second-floor deck, reachable only by jumping adults or people standing on chairs!
- A green egg, neatly placed atop a green trailing vine/tree at the top - hard to see and hard to reach.
- In the middle of a bush too dense to see into, even though the egg was red. (It's a sign of how crazy the egg hunt is here that this was actually found very early on, I think.)
- Dropped into the bottom of an unused planter.
- Against the trellis. This was mine, and it was the last one found (discounting two that had to be pointed out by the person who placed them). It doesn't sound so evil, however, it was a Kit-Kat bar. Wrapped in white. With bright writing on the front...and brown writing on the back. I turned it back out. The writing was now the shade of the vine; the background, the shade of the trellis. I then tucked it carefully back behind the vine, and watched people walk past it and walk past it and walk past it.... Nothing to draw the eye. This one took a hint, but not a direct point-out, though I narrowed it pretty well for them.
Yes, I'm easily amused. Still, it was fun.
Scott's cousin has a pool table in his room. I'm really impressed. Not by the pool table, but by the 'in his room' part. First, his room is large enough to hold his bed, some other gaming equipment, and the pool table, and not feel crowded, and let those inclined to play make their shots without worrying about walls or other objects interrupting. Secondly, it's a slate set and his room is upstairs. I think they're insane, but it's amusing and kinda cool and they're clearly pleased, so....
I watched that for a while and then a bunch of us (...mostly women/girls, now I think about it...) came downstairs and played a game of Apples to Apples. Scott (the only guy playing) won. Then I said my goodbyes, as it was just time for me to go to make it home in good time to resume the after-hours coverage when I said I would. When I left, Scott and the girls (his cousins) were making for the Playstation one of them got as part of her birthday presents, while his mother was headed back into the kitchen, I think.
I got directions on how to drive home. They sounded clear, but one of the roads I was following abruptly became something else and scared the heck out of me. I think I'd have been okay if I just kept going, but I panicked and doubled back, intending to return to the house and get better directions (the first part had been okay; I knew I could retrace it, 'cos I had street names and knew they applied).
However, I recognized a landmark from our drive in (Scott and I came in the long way, from town) and just kept going instead. I was able to get back to where I needed to be and out to the highway, even if I didn't take the 'easy' route I'd been given. I kinda wish I could have stayed longer, but I think Apples to Apples would have lost out to the Playstation (they had Lord of the Rings) anyway...and I would have lost interest then, so maybe it was just really good timing that I had enough time to enjoy myself, then jetted before the groups split out to things that didn't interest me.
I'm not sure how late they'll stay or whether they'll want to do anything else tonight, so I might end up doing stuff I choose or I might not.
And wonderfully, I'm good with it either way.
OH! Addendum: the picture I post this with, the sunlit creek? His aunt & uncle who own the camp where I took it were also at Easter dinner. I gave them both a physical print, and the file of it; they told me they used it on the back of their current brochure. Which is really kind of cool. It's a good shot.
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Though however, your comments on 'pink stuff' tickled my funny bone, for in my family it is called 'purple stuff' and indeed is not for the faint at heart. I love it though and graduated to the purple stuff maker many years ago.