A very fun weekend

Well, what a hell of a weekend! My cousin, Jocelyn, and her friend, Jill, came out for a visit from Minnesota this past weekend. They arrived late Thursday night and headed up to Polly's house to stay for the weekend. Ostensibly they were here for a friend's wedding, but they spent a whole lot of time wine tasting and playing with Freibergs when they weren't at the actual wedding.

Friday afternoon Davey and I headed up to Polly's house to have dinner with Polly, Prescott, Rozzie, Jocelyn and Jill (Mark was working at the store that night). Being so hot, nobody felt like cooking, so we had a dinner of cold cuts, cheese and other assorted cold things, nibbling the evening away.

Saturday Joc and Jill went wine tasting while Davey and I headed up to Bonnie's house on the Russian River. We got there around lunch time.

Then, a few hours later, Polly and the kids arrived. A couple hours after that, Joc and Jill arrived, a little tired but happy from a day of wine tasting in Napa. Mark arrived a couple hours after them, after he finished working. Bonnie was an amazing hostess as she housed and fed all 10 of us guests!

Well, everyone brought something to share, but Bonnie provided the lionshare of dinner and had boundless energy and love. Thank you Bonnie! Mark, Polly and the kids even got to sit around a camp fire that night, make s'mores and tell ghost stories.



Sunday we all spend pretty much lazing around the house, spending time in or on the shores of the river, playing badminton, nibbling on goodies lying about, talking... it was very relaxing. Eventually, Jocelyn and Jill dolled up and went to their friend's wedding. Then Polly and the kids filtered out. Then Davey and I headed home to get there in time for me to make him some dinner. Mark stayed behind to watch a movie with Bonnie and came home once it was over.



Monday, most people had to work, except Jocelyn and Jill who had one more day of vacation. They headed out to Tomales Bay and picked up 100 oysters! Then they headed back to Napa for more wine tasting before meeting all of us again, this time at Dad's house for an oyster barbecue. Dad bought chicken to barbecue and made a delicious Thai prawn curry over brown basmati rice. Gregg did the honors in terms of grilling the chicken and Polly was the oyster shucking queen!



I made a barbecue sauce and a spicy garlic butter for the oysters and spent much of the evening applying sauces to the oysters on the grill and putting the cooked oysters on a platter. Those were damned fine oysters, let me tell ya!



There were three bottles of champagne, a few bottles of wine, great food, dancing, singing and a lot of love. It was a great evening and a terrific way to send Jocelyn and Jill back home, on their 12:30am flight back to Minnesota.



You're welcome to come back anytime and we love you!