Families - love 'em or hate 'em?

Well this is not good.  Just Jot it January finished last week and no post here since Friday.  Clearly there's a connection.

I'd like to say I've been busy but that's only partly true.  On Friday evening we were out.  One of Hubby's siblings invited all of us to dinner. By all of us I mean the 8 siblings and partners so 8 + 6 partners arrived for a lovely meal.  She had prepared 3 types of smoked salmon for starter, followed by Beef Wellington and then Chocolate mousse cake or trifle for dessert.  All of it was delicious and we had a really nice evening.  It's rare that we manage to get all the siblings together except at things like weddings but we've all agreed to make more effort this year.

I think we're all conscious of not having my Mother-in-law around anymore to pull us all together so we have to do it for ourselves.  We've already agreed a date for the next get together which Hubby and I will organise.  We won't be cooking a Cordon Bleu meal though as it would be hard to seat 14.  We're probably going to do a buffet for when people arrive and then go out to a couple of local venues that have music.

Getting back to the weekend, we ended up staying the night at Nick's sister's house.  Fortunately I had grabbed a few essentials like toothbrushes in case.  Not the most comfortable night's sleep - on the floor and a sofa - but it avoided a drive home and meant I could have more than a small glass of wine for a change.  We also got to help clear up the next morning and spend more time with two of his sisters.

Once we got home though the rest of the weekend was spent rather lazily. We even avoided a certain well known event taking place in the US - probably because our American DIL was also away for the weekend!

I did prepare a new recipe on Sunday, a tasty chicken casserole but once again did not take a photo!  Perhaps I need to be more like my kids and glued to my phone.  Actually I'm off phones since Nick got his nearly new smartphone.  He's still getting used to it so the questions keep coming.

Yesterday was a bit more productive - we finally delivered our old mattress to a friend who wanted it and I got bits and pieces for my son's birthday which is today.  No big celebrations this year despite one of our oldest friends getting the two boys confused and wishing him a happy 30th two years early!  One of my BILs has just jokingly wished him a happy 40th on Whatsapp.  Don't you just love family? I certainly do.