T Stands for a Rainy Holiday Weekend

 Hi everyone. Happy Monday night or Tuesday. It's time again for T day,  the first T day of July.

The long holiday weekend here in New Hampshire was not particulary bright or sunny (except this Monday afternoon when the sun finally came out). In fact we had over 4 inches of rain. It might have been needed for the environment, but it was not what anyone wanted for the Independence Day holiday weekend. 

The good thing was my husband was not the party planner (think of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, that's him) because if he was we would have sat home. One of my sister-in-law's however got the party started. She and her family went to my mother-in-law's home, and when she called and my husband said we were  staying home, my daughter and I looked at him and said "We are? That's not what we had planned." I think my husband was shocked, but off my husband and I went, as well as my daughter and her beau to my MIL's house.

We had a fun day of food, drinks, games and good conversation, rain or no rain.

This is a terrible photo of my MIL, but you can see all the 20 somethings having food and drinks. You can also see my sister-in-law's husband, who is a professional chef. For lunch he made some home made pizza as well as meatballs wrapped in bacon. One of my nieces brought salads, and I brought several racks of ribs. (Which makes me wonder why my husband thought I was making so many ribs?)

Here's my ticket to T. For drinks one of the nieces was making an assortment of margaritas. This one is fresh strawberry, and I also had one that was  strawberry mango.  After that I switched back to Diet Coke.

I am linking up to  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog for T this week.

My 87 year old MIL isn't doing all that well. There is nothing specifically wrong with her except she has gotten so fragile and weak. (That in itself a is a long story.) She also has gotten very deaf. She  has been living winters with my SIL in Maine and comes back to her house for the summer for several years now, but this year she can't really be left to manage on her own.  Since her move back, the family has  been bringing her food, getting her trash and taking her to the grocery store. This might be the last summer she can stay at her house. 

It is sad because it was only  6 years ago she was riding the jet ski with my husband. 

This was one reason it was important to have a get together on the holiday. 

The sun never really came out, but most of us did manage to get down on the dock. (Not my MIL, she had a margarita and then went to take a nap.) I was the only one brave enough to swim, and Pete and I did several laps back and forth between the dock and swim raft. I can't seem to get in for a swim alone if he is around. Maddie also went for her mini swims, but Maddie loves to be wet. She will go swimming even when most of the lake is still ice and there is a patch of open water on the shore. My sister-in-law and her family have 3 dogs between them, none of who will swim, which they think is a tragedy. 

The day ended with this cake I made. The reason there is an 8 candle on it is that we say the Fourth of July is Maddie's birthday.  Not that we know exactly when she was born, and not that she knows what a birthday is either.  But yes we were all silly enough to sing happy birthday to her.

I made a lemon scented marble cake. I made the marbling with red and blue gel food coloring. The colors are intense enough that when I marbled it there ended up with a bit of purple. It didn't matter, and the cake tasted great so what's a little mixing?

That's all for me today.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and have a great T day.

Thanks for visiting.