Beneath the Wraps

                We had signed up to feed the missionaries at 4:00.  We watched “An American Christmas Carol” and Jenna and I took Bonnie for a walk.  I think we talked with all three boys before Roland started dinner.           Jenna says it’s tradition that we always have a breakfast meal for our Christmas Eve dinner.   So guess what the elders got? It wasn’t the traditional breakfast that we normally have.   Roland started cooking the meal just after 3:00.   Our meal consisted of steak, eggs, cornbread and hash browns with bacon. Three elders arrived shortly before 4:00.   We put Bonnie in my room and fed the elders in the back room where we have the tree. Jenna does not like steak and could have made a meal out of corn bread alone. I think she had at least four pieces. After the elders left we watched “Encanto” – well, Jenna did.   Roland and I watched part of...

          We had signed up to feed the missionaries for Saturday.  Roland had requested them to come at 4:00 but they said they could not come until 5:00 – which is their normal eating time.  We were doing another breakfast dinner but with a few changes – such as having waffles. Roland believed he could start the dinner at 3:00 and have it ready by 4:00.  I think with the amount of time he spent trying to repair the cable, he would just assume have not had to deal with the missionaries at all.  However the arrangements had already been made. With the cable disconnected and his working to get it repaired, I started a countdown which I don ’ t think helped his mood at all.   I thought it would be nice if he showered before our breakfast dinner got started.   I ran over the list in my mind – eggs, waffles, sausage and bacon.   It seemed like there was something else but I could not figure it out otherwise I would have started...

Roland accepted another opportunity to feed the elders.   This time we will be feeding four of them. Roland wants to provide them with a steak dinner.   That means we will have to use real plates instead of paper.   Hey, wait a minute . . . last time we had the Elders over we put all the food on the table so that they could load up their plates with whatever they wanted.     Each of us held our plates over our laps.   That isn’t going to work with steak.   The missionaries are not allowed to come inside or even knock on the door.   It’s not like we have extra tables hanging around that we can take outside.   Roland had suggested a barbeque with hamburgers and hotdogs. Jenna and I were hoping for Hawaiian haystacks.   They’ve been to other barbeques. For the most part when we’ve had haystacks it Has been a new idea to at least one elder. I think Jenna and I may have won out. Roland is now purcha...

          We haven ’ t fed the missionaries since the pandemic began until this past week.  For a while they were grounded to their apartment and the rule was to drop off food at the church and they would pick it up.  Perhaps that was easier for many members who unable to have missionaries come due to circumstances – for instance there are many single sisters and the missionaries serving in Myrtle Creek have always been Elders.              The person who was called to find families to feed the missionaries is quite diligent with her calling and somewhat aggressive as I ’ m certain she has roped people into feeding them when they may not have chosen to do so on their own.  The rules are quite different now due to COVID.  I don ’ t know how it is in each mission but in Oregon they are no longer allowed to knock on doors.  They have to stand outside until they are summoned.  They can visit with pe...

            Roland brought some ham home the other day and thought about making a sweet and sour with some of it.   We already had sweet and sour chicken leftover in the fridge.   I told him to make ham fried rice.   He said he needed a recipe.   I could not find one that listed all ingredients that we had on hand, and so I printed a couple in order to demonstrate that not all recipes contain the ingredients and that it is possible to alter ingredients.   People make mock recipes all the time.                I am a substitute who works with what I have.   Roland is a letter-to-the-law recipe follower - even down to the measurements.   I told him to half the recipe that he chose, but no.   He insisted on four cups of rice.   And yet we are only two people - sometimes three, but mostly just two as Jenna is a fussy e...

          Four years ago yesterday, our friends Cheryl and Miguel decided to take their niece Payton to the Cornbelly's activity at Thanksgiving Point.   They asked if they could take Jenna with them.           Jenna and Payton got along well together.   Payton was two years older than Jenna, but shorter.   Many people who saw them together believed they were sisters.   I did not go with them, but had remembered the event as Cheryl had tagged me in several photos on facebook.   I had the opportunity of seeing them again when facebook memory page showed me the photos.     Cheryl had taken quite a few pictures;  I don't have permission to post the ones she took - there were several of Jenna and Payton.           I thought it fitting to see the photos while thinking about Jenna and commenting...

          Almost two hours after Jenna left for school, I looked outside the window to see a fog so thick it had nearly swallowed my view of the houses across the street.   Normally I don't get so excited by something that has impaired my vision, but unlike the hazy smoke that had lingered at the beginning of the month, I knew that the fog was clean and moist and would lift and be gone until another morning.   I've never seen the clouds so closely to my face.   It was pretty awesome.           Right now the sky is clear and blue.   It is a sunny day.   There is no evidence that the fog had descended so low.   The scenery is clean.   There is nothing to impell my vision or breathing.           Last night we fed the Elders.   The sun was beating on our house and shining through the windows.   The kit...

        Missionaries appreciate not only meeting the members, but having someone cook dinner for them - or at least I did.  Depending on the area,  I suppose there are some meals that can get tiresome for missionaries.  Spaghetti seems to be a huge staple.  Missionaries seem to get their fill of pizza in the ward I currently reside.  In my mission, the meal that was overdone always included fried chicken and some unidentified vegetable that had been boiled beyond recognition.          Serving chicken was so overdone that before my mission ended,  I was certain that I wouldn't care if I ever ate chicken again. And I think it was seriously a couple of years before I willingly ate it again.         Roland always likes to do something different for the missionaries - something original that they (the missionaries) don't get very often....