Chocolate, kittens, and old tyme stories

Saturday, my hubby and I decided to run away to the local chocolate festival. I should have stayed home and cleaned my house, but chocolate versus messy house ~ oh yeah, i chose the chocolate. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the festival. The words "chocolate festival" brings to mind chocolate everywhere, chocolate bon-bons, chocolate truffles, chocolate candy of every kind imaginable, and chocolate ice cream. Sadly, what I found instead was row after row of craft booths, old cars, a row of food that your mouth would love to chew, but your body would hate afterward, and oh yeah, ONE row of chocolate! I looked at my hubby and said, "This is it??!" So, I stood in this long line and ended up with a small tiny bag of chocolate carmels, rocky road for Mamo, three peanut butter cups, and "turtles." I could have gotten homemade fudge, but since I got sick from fudge as a child, I cannot stand the stuff. Needless to say, I won't be going back next year, but hey, there is always a first time for everything!

My hubby found his dream car ~

I found mine ~

I did end up eating a chocolate-dipped fruit kabob consisting of strawberries and bananas and yes, it was pretty good!

The rest of the day was better. We went out to my grandparents because, of course, I had to take her the rocky road. Their place is out of town, complete with horses, chickens, the family garden, and most recently, Miss Kitty's month old kittens. Miss Kitty was actually their neighbor's kitten and when they moved, the people just left her, so she is Mamo and Poppy's adopted outside cat. :) As you know, living in the country, it is a very good thing to have a cat to handle the gophers and field mice. Every day I have talked to Mamo, I have asked her if Miss Kitty brought her babies out of hiding. We have all been waiting anxiously to see them as these are her first babies! We were finally rewarded this weekend! Miss Kitty has done a great job at being mommy and she was completely fine with us holding her babies, which I was delighted to do! Mamo and I sat out underneath the trees and watched them play with each other and ended up being able to hold all of them.

This is Midnight, the runt of the litter and the most adventurous!

The orange tabby is the only female out of four kittens...

Awwww....

Such a little poser ~ just like a girl!

Midnight investigating the big, bad world

Mamo with her hands full...

Such a cute little face...

After dinner, we sat around and Mamo and Poppy ended up talking about days of olde and the different stunts of my great-great grandfather and uncles. Mamo talked about being raised on a farm in Oklahoma and walking behind her dad, who was plowing with a horse, planting corn. She told us of the two floods that wiped out their entire corn crops two years running and the decision to move to California. There was silence at the table as we thought about that and the heartbreak to lose crops and money. I didn't know my great-grandma did without an "icebox" and Mamo as a small child routinely ran down to the spring where they stored their milk, eggs, and butter that my great-grandma had churned herself. As Mamo talked about her mom molding butter in a dish with a rose on it so that the butter came out looking like a rose and then going into a town to sell it and getting top dollar for her butter because the merchants knew her butter was top quality, I felt like I was seeing a glimpse into a real-life Hallmark movie. :) I laughed until I had tears in my eyes about my great-great uncles digging a well so far down they decided to blast the rest with dynamite and one was still in the well while the other two threaded a line into a corn cob and threw it down there telling him to hurry and get out of there, it was going to blow, the poor guy yelling his lungs out until he realized it was just corn...then, they had to keep him down there until he promised not to kill them when he got out of the well! I was quite sure Mamo was "pulling my leg" when she told me my great-great grandma chewed tobacco ~ what a shock to realize she wasn't.

My one regret is that I didn't have a video camera to record them talking about family I will never know and recounting their experiences for us as children. It is good for the soul to sit and listen to stories that make you grateful for modern progress. My hubby and I would look at each other and shake our heads at times at the tales told. Lying in bed Saturday night, thinking about my family tree, I thanked God once again for keeping my Mamo here and that I could once again sit at her table with my hubby and be grateful for this precious time.

Hug your family, tell them you love them, and have a great week!