July 4th Weekend

(This is Yoni typing now, by the way.) I need to give Michelle a huge thank you for the amazing birthday gift that she got for me this year. It's a custom guitar strap with my name on it and it has the Stars n' Stripes along with Stars of David along the tooled leather:












Yoni's parents came to visit us for the July 4th weekend, and we discovered that his parents had never spent Shabbat at our home before, though we have been married for over a year. Needless to say, it was a very special and joyous occasion. They rolled in at about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, so they had plenty of time to get ready before Shabbat, and they even tasted a few of the last-minute items we cooked, like fresh egg rolls and schnitzel fingers! Yoni bought a new grill in time for the 4th, a Mesquite grill/smoker combination that he says, "Grills meat with robust flavor to perfection!" Tasty, eh?

In preparation for a super-patriotic 4th weekend, Michelle and Yoni came up with a menu to delight the American taste-bud. Barbeque chicken (as pictured below) with homemade BBQ sauce (mmmmm molasses...), meatloaf, chicken pot pie, "American pie", pumpkin pie, etc... Michelle also made AMAZING pull-apart Challot for Shabbat:











We had a nice relaxing Shabbat followed by another special treat of a barbeque on Sunday!! Also, the weekend provided an interesting and amazing discovery. Michelle, Yoni, and Yoni's Pappy played catch in the backyard, while the grill warmed up, and we let Libby out to play with us. It's a great way to tire her out! She'd follow the ball and sometimes we'd let it go (by accident) so she could run after it, fetch, and drop it at our feet. She also looked adorable in her patriotic bandana Michelle made:










The barbeque included special Yoni-enhanced burgers (read: he marinates them in "Bone Suckin' Sauce") and hotdogs on the grill ... and what's a barbeque without pickles! (not on the grill...) We had a great time, especially because the weather cooperated. It didn't get above 85 that afternoon, so we ate outside and hung out there for a while until the flies invited their friends and the fly horde descended upon our happy little gathering and tried to claim our dinner for themselves. We summarily snubbed them by wolfing down the rest of the meat, potatoes, salad, and cantaloupe before those derned ol' flies could even get their mandibles on a burger bun!

Anyway, after our fun outdoor supper, Yoni's parents went back to the big city and we spent the afternoon lazily cleaning the house and napping. By napping, we really mean taking a two minute break from cleaning by sitting on the couch ... and waking up three hours later... All in all a great weekend!