Meet the Parents

When we heard they were coming to town, Jim & I looked forward to meeting Brian’s parents. We were kidding around all week about “meeting the parents” & “meeting the Fockers”. I was kinda nervous about it because I wanted them to like us. I decided to have them over for dinner and planned on barbecuing. When I asked Angie what to make she said “hamburgers”. When I asked Angie what kind of wine to buy she said “St. James”. I told her that was cheap wine and didn’t Brian know anything better but she said he didn’t. Strike 1 for Angie. So it just so happened that my cleaning lady came that week so the house was looking good. I cut some flowers from my garden and had several vases full that I thought looked pretty. They were supposed to come over at 5:00 and I had done the barbecuing early because I didn’t want to be all sweaty cooking since it was over 100 degrees out. I made potato salad the night before, spinach casserole, tomato salad, an olive & pickle tray and brownies.  Everything was ready and I was sitting in the family room waiting for them when I hear Angie come in through the kitchen yelling “helllllllooooo”. I couldn’t believe she brought them in through the garage!  Strike 2 for Angie. Then I see Brian carrying a big bowl of --- you guessed it --- potato salad! I told him that I made a big bowl of potato salad and he said, “I told Angie to text you last night to tell you that my mom was making potato salad!” Strike 3 for Angie.

Jim & I were introduced to Dee & Lloyd and there wasn’t a lull in the conversation for the next 5 hours. They were very nice. We talked a lot about travels because they’ve travelled all over the world. At one point I asked Dee to come into the dining room with me and I showed her our family picture and told her that we have 37 in our immediate family. When she replied that she was an only child, I felt kinda bad. Not bad, but sorry for her because it’s so fun having a large family. Everything was going good and we were talking about different places we’d been when Jim told me to tell them the story about the ghost. I had my scrapbook album with the ghost picture & story in the kitchen area so I got it out and showed them while telling the story. If you don’t know the story, here’s a short version:  Jim & I went to a castle in Copenhagen and while I was taking pictures Jim was videotaping our tour. When we got back & I had my pictures developed there was a figure in one that neither Jim nor I recognized. There were only 2 other couples on the tour so we knew it wasn’t them. So we watched the video Jim had taken and the figure was in the video, too. I’m sure most people think we’re crazy but we swear it’s a ghost. We even have a brochure from the castle that has a picture of the King and you can tell he’s the ghost by his collar & hair. So I told the story and the next day I thought, “they probably think I’m a nutjob or something!” Anyway, it was nice finally meeting Brian’s parents and Angie said his dad commented that we were nice people. Success!