Happy Birthday Mum...

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Today you would have been 78.

After the biz of yesterday's impromptu family get together, today has been fairly quiet.  

Eleanor and Kenny left after breakfast and D and I decided a day of taking it easy was required.  Of course for him that included a trip to the driving range.  

Alan was also out and about so once Lola and I had the house to ourselves,  I sat down with a coffee and my thoughts turned to you.

I thought about what you would have made of last night's BBQ, and all the socialising we do at home.  I actually laughed out loud thinking about some of the conversations we used to have when you knew we were having a friends round for dinner or even just you and John.  

I'd be chatting about possible menus, what table linen I wanted to use, whether to do a sit down meal or buffet etc etc and you would shake your head at me and say something along the lines of...

Why are you going to so much trouble?
Why not eat out?
Why not make life easier and just get a takeaway?
Why do you need to make 4 courses?
Can't I  / people bring a dish?
You'll exhaust yourself!
How can you be bothered?
Don't go to any bother for us, a sandwich will do (you'd say that even if it was Christmas dinner! :-))

And I would get fed up explaining over and over again that I could be bothered because I loved doing it.   

And I would end up so exasperated with you because the person I had inherited the love of entertaining from, and the joy of cooking for friends and family and bringing people together under my roof, was YOU!

You loved nothing more than filling your home with friends and family and feeding us all so much that we would actually groan getting up from the table as we undid belts and waddled to comfy seats to stretch out (usually to your worried call of "are you sure you've had enough to eat?"  YES!  We would chorus! :-)

You were the one who offered four starters and four desserts (even when it was only David and me coming for dinner) and you'd be plonking the desserts on the table whilst we were only half way through our main course!

Oh the expression on David's face when he'd eaten home made soup then pate to start, a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings, cheesecake and profiteroles for dessert then as he got up from the table, you'd say "but you haven't had any of my lemon meringue pie!"   :-)))

You're the one who would invite us for a "light" lunch and we'd arrive to find a buffet table laid like a banquet with cold meats, chicken drumsticks, poached salmon, salad, salad accompaniments, baby potatoes, cheese board, fruit and the customary aforementioned desserts.

You're the one who went to her Scottish Slimmers class with a hand bag full of contraband aka homemade tablet, chocolate mint cake and malteser cake to share round in the queue waiting for the class to start.  I am sure you raised their profits by thousands by making these poor women take double the time to reach their target weights!

You were the one who could never visit us without bringing at least two bags of shopping / goodies.

And it's because of you that at all times I cater for at least four more people than I am expecting for dinner.

So what would you have made of Saturday night's BBQ?  

You would have come in the door saying "I don't know how you can be bothered Di.  I hope you haven't gone to any trouble" as you handed me a bunch of carrier bags containing enough sausages and buttered rolls to feed an army, a tray of homemade millionaire's shortbread, homemade scones and a Victoria sponge.

You taught me well.

:-)) xx