Chapter 81

We started a pot of coffee and a tea kettle to have hot water for tea and hot coco. I fired up the oven as I was going to try my hand at making some of those cinnamon breakfast pastries. I made several rolls of them. We also set up several trays of fruit. I had several pounds of bacon, sausage and of course an old eastern shore favorite, scrapple, along with several dozen eggs. Jenny had bought a box of pancake mix just in case anyone wanted some.

Both Moms' were to be here at 8. We put the last load of clean dishes away from the dishwasher. We double cross-checked the menu list with the things in the pantry to be sure we had everything.

The guests started to come down. The coffee aroma worked like an alarm clock. The first to come down were the Smithfields followed by the Snows. The pastries with coffee were a hit with the guests. The girls and I preferred milk or hot chocolate with ours. The Moms arrived to start cooking and joined us. Jeanna was the last to join us. I noticed that she was wearing a turtleneck sweater.

After breakfast the Moms started cooking again. I should say us girls did the cooking with our Mom's supervising. During the supervision they were having a grand time telling all the embarrassing things we had done in our childhood. The stories and the reminiscing continued throughout the morning.

I did pick up some tidbits about the things that went on while the mothers were pregnant with us - a couple of the things Jenny and I could use for later. There were some very interesting stories. Some of them were kind of kinky. It must be true that being pregnant made the girl extra horny.

Wendy and her Dad Captain Carl Adams arrived. The introductions were taking longer with so many people in the house. The guys all migrated to the living room to watch the build-up to the football games. I carried in a six pack of Bud Lite and a bowl of party mix.

The dinner was coming together. The turkey and ham were hot and ready to come out of the oven. The macaroni and cheese was ready to come out of the other oven. The veggies were in the triple crock pots cooking, the biscuits were on the tray and put in the oven. We began putting all the food on the kitchen table. Just fix your plate and sit at the big table in the formal dining room.

We had turkey with dressing and a big honey ham as the big items. The veggies were peas, string beans with cut up salted ham slow cooked, lima beans with salted ham, home made baked beans, creamy corn, homemade macaroni with Velveeta cheese, potato salad and cranberry sauce. Mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, candied sweet potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, and sweet potato biscuits filled out the main menu.

For desert we had apple, pumpkin, blueberry, chocolate, lemon and mince meat pies - with ice cream of course. For drinks we had Coke, Pepsi, sweet tea made with Splenda, water, wine and coffee.

With everything on the table we called everyone in so Mom could say grace. The feast was on; there was a lot of eating and very little talking. By the time desert was finished, everyone was stuffed. We decided to cover the food up for an hour or two just in case anyone wanted seconds. We did start a load in the dishwasher to help out for later.

Everyone settled into the living room to watch the Army/Navy football game. During breaks in the game I was able to have a conversation with Wendy's dad Carl about our military careers. After much discussion we came to the conclusion that he was on the USS Lincoln on special assignment in the Gulf at the time the convoy I was in was ambushed. F18s from the USS Enterprise had flown the rescue support for my convoy.

Carl was extremely interested in my awards, ribbons and medals that I had in display cases in the living room. We had long conversations about them, the when and where. He was really into the ones that I was awarded as a hand to hand combat trainer and there nearly a dozen of them. In the process I learned he was on the advanced curriculum advisory committee at the Academy

He offered to give me and the girls a tour of the Navel Academy whenever we wanted. I thought I would like to see the museum some time. Navy won the game in overtime. The guys flipped the channel to watch the Cowboys/Lions game.

The girls and I did the kitchen duty. We fixed several leftover plates and then put away the rest of the food. We put away the clean dishes from the dishwasher and ran the second load. It would take one more to finish the dishes.

We ladies stayed in the kitchen catching up on lost time and the latest family gossip. It was during this relaxed time that I finally had unrushed time to evaluate and size up Jeanna, Lisa and Leslie. I noticed that Jeanna was having a hard time looking me in the eye. It finally came to me that she must have been outside of our bedroom last night or maybe even in it. That would explain the need for the turtleneck. The next time that I caught her eye I winked at her and smiled. Her reaction was priceless but it ended with a wink of her own and a little smile. She had given herself away. Now I just needed to figure out who she was with.