Saturday November 15, 2008

 

 

Eating Out

Because of being out of the house – for meals – the last two nights, I’m having to catch up. 

Isn’t that a tough situation?

 

 

This was the table setting at my sister’s house on Thursday evening.

 

 

 

 

She always makes meal settings that delight our eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee waiting to be served

 

 

My niece Chelsey

 

 

This was “Sibling’s Night” for my family.  I have only one photo that included my sister, Nancy, who is standing.  Her husband, Marlin, is to her left.

 

 

My youngest brother, Steve, (red shirt) and his wife, Brenda.  Cerwin is at the right end of the table.  Next to him is my middle brother, Clair, and his wife, Anne.  Clair will be spending most of 2009 in Rome – the reason we decided it was time for an evening with siblings. 

Prior to joining my other two brothers on the family dairy farm in the early ’90s, he and Anne lived in Cali, Colombia, where he worked with CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture).  Since joining the farm, he continued as a consultant for CIAT – the reason he will be working in Rome next year.

When working on the farm, he oversaw the crops, and because of his desire to retire from doing that fulltime, the job of planting and harvesting crops has been outsourced. 

 

 

Left to right:  our brother-in-law Marlin, our sister-in-law, Dot, my oldest brother Dale, and our stepmother, Velma.  After our mother died from cancer in 1974, Velma became a great addition to our family circle when Daddy married her in 1975.  She continues to be an important part of our lives, even though Daddy died in 1997.  (I introduced the others in prior photos.)

 

 

Nancy is known for her fabulous pies, and though the soup (wild rice or beef noodle) and sandwiches (barbecued pork) was delicious, we knew to save room for dessert.  This pie is lemon sponge – my favorite.

 

 

Bumbleberry – a mixture of berries

 

 

Peanut Butter – Cerwin’s favorite

 

 

Though Cerwin has a favorite – he tried a small slice of each!

 

 

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Friday night we went to Yoder’s for a dinner concert featuring the Chuck Wagon Gang.

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Waiting for the meal to begin.

 

 

Spending an evening listening to the Chuck Wagon Gang is relaxing, refreshing, and inspiring.

 

 

They are the third generation Chuck Wagon Gang, but still sound like the original group.

 

 

After intermission they told some stories about the group’s beginnings in 1936 – even using “cat glasses” – which one of the original ladies liked.  I forget if it was Anna or Rose.

Most of the younger generation is not familiar with this group, so we knew the audience would be older than fifty – and most were.

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The evening took me back to my parent’s kitchen where I first heard the Chuck Wagon Gang.