Barbecue Was a Success!

Well, the first family barbecue of 2013 was a huge success!  It didn't matter that the weather was only 79 degrees, making the pool feel like swimming in the Arctic - everyone had a great time and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

I'll admit, I was nervous about having everyone over.  Nervous if I had enough food and drink.  Nervous there was enough room for everyone to sit comfortably and enjoy the conversations.  Nervous that I'd have so many little kids running around that someone would get hurt or something would get broken.  But, I didn't have to worry about any of it... everything was A-OK.

I also didn't have to worry about my mouth pain.  I didn't have any.  OK, so there was still quite a bit of swelling, which still made it hard to open my mouth too wide... so things like laughing were something of a struggle... but I managed to eat just fine, swim just fine, and talk just fine.

My family arrived around 2pm, and until after 10pm last night we were out on the patio.  The kids swam for hours and hours... despite their little shivering bodies and blue lips.  When they did finally call the swimming quits, they quickly found something else to amuse themselves with.  They had the choices of basketball, or miniature golf, or riding bikes, or sidewalk chalking the driveway.

The adults talked and laughed and conversed.  The teenagers teeter tottered back and forth between the little kids and the adults.

The food was fantastic.  Hubby cooked up some wonderful ribs, hamburgers, and hot-dogs.  We had potato salad to go with it.  Despite the fact that I can barely open my mouth more than maybe an inch, I wasn't about to at least try eating my most favorite BBQ food:  Ribs.  It was a little painful, but well worth it.  The ribs were DELICIOUS!

At 8pm, my sister took all of the kids up to Sonic for half priced shakes.  I'm pretty sure that we are going to become VIP customers at Sonic.  We've gone almost every night this past week... but I chose to pass last night.  I was still too full from dinner.

Once the kids finished their shakes, it was time to try and get them to settle down.. somewhere.  Jelly tried to play the gracious host and offered to pull out her extra mattress for my niece and nephew to lay on.  She tried... but they weren't too keen on the idea of laying down and watching TV.  They were still in play mode - to the dismay of Jelly who was most definitely ready for bed.  In the end, my brother got my niece and nephew to sleep in Jelly's room.  Butter watched over one of the foster kids in his room.  Jelly went to sleep in my bed.  And the adults sat out on the patio for a couple more hours enjoying adult conversation.

Finally, around 10:30pm, my parents decided it was time to head home.

I really expected to get up this morning and have a disaster of a mess to clean up.  But, I didn't.  Hubby had gotten up early and hosed off the patio and got rid of all the trash.  That was about all the cleaning that had to be done.  I couldn't believe it.  I have the whole day to not really do anything... except for laundry and normal clean-house duties.

What an awesome feeling!

So, it's time to get to enjoying my day off.  Well, what I consider a day off....