Happy Birthday celebrations for my great-nephew.

Today was my great-nephew’s 13th birthday, and we went for a celebratory lunch at my sister’s house. The Birthday Boy was all smiles as he came to greet us, and I’m not surprised. Most people had given him money instead of a present, and he had quite a decent nest egg already. He’s saving up for some fancy cricket gear. I persuaded him to pose with me in his new cool shades, and with his wallet full of notes.

Although it’s mid winter here, the children were in and out of the pool. Their soccer ball kept landing in the water, so they just jumped in to retrieve it, and had a whale of a time.

The men were all busy cooking the meat on the braai, and jolly good it smelt too. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the word ‘braai’ it literally means, “burnt flesh, or roasted meat.”

It was such a happy time, with seventeen of us, ages ranging from three to eighty-seven years. I love these family get-togethers; such special times. Eventually the food was ready, and we all tucked in as though we hadn’t eaten for a week. There’s just something so tasty about meat done over the coals.

My contributions was the dessert, which was my famous chocolate pie which always goes down a treat, plus extra whipped cream and strawberry and chocolate chip meringues.

One of my sister’s friends asked me what was in the pie. My reply was, “You really don’t want to know.” Anyway, after she’d eaten a good sized portion, she asked me again, and as the damage was already done, I told her, ” A packet of chocolate cream biscuits, butter, milk, cream, three bars of chocolate, a whole packet of marshmallows, and two Cadbury’s Flakes.” There was hardly a morsel left, but hubby scraped the dish. Better go to waist than to waste, I always say. 😉

My sister had made him a grenadilla birthday pudding, which looked really delicious. So as you may gather, no-one went hungry. 😉

Whilst we were waiting for lunch to be ready, I was getting some pics for Ailsa’s travel theme this week, which is “Art.” My sister is an artist, so I thought I could show you some of her work, but that will have to wait until tomorrow, because now it’s time for bed here. Hope you’ve all had as splendid a weekend as I have.