Dinner is done

Hello,

As the arrival time approached I asked, "What do we do with all of this food if they do not come? Do you think they will come?"

"I have been wondering the same thing," Leroy said and at that moment we heard the doorbell chime.

Four of the seven kids came. They were younger and smaller than I expected. One boy was in high school and he looked to be in grade school. Not started to grow to adulthood yet. I had seen two of the younger kids when I subbed last year.

These kids were polite and mostly entertained themselves. They did not however, even taste the ravioli, ate just a little of the broccoli, and took quite a bit of the chicken dish, but ate little of it. They did seem to like the home made bread. They did not try the apple bread. After they all served themselves the gingerbread I realized they might have thought it was chocolate since Leroy had carried it in without explanation. Upon questioning I found that to be the case. Some declined to eat it and some of them tasted it, but did not seem too excited about it. No one except me took any of the applesauce to put with it. They all wanted tea to drink at the end of the meal so I guess I would say that was the most successful part.

I was long awake last night trying to think of other things that I could have served with more success. Spaghetti seemed as if it would have been foolproof, but then I remembered that my dad did not eat anything with tomatoes in it so I finally went back to my statement that they would not die of hunger.

We did have a very nice visit with the parents. They were quite disappointed to learn that we would someday be moving from Chariton. We discussed many similar experiences about moving to a new country. They had to live a little more scary existence finding their way than we did. After one of their comments they all laughed when I said, "Tak dobry" (So, good in Slovak). The Ukrainian language shares some words with Slovak.

I will not have to cook now for at least three days. Good thing Leroy never complains about leftovers.

Paula