My brother and sister from Olympia, Wa. and my wife's ex-husband visited us over the last several days.

That's an interesting mix in and of itself, but the question is how much of an effort do people make to accommodate family?

For my family, I believe in whatever regular food we would serve anyway, plus a night out to dinner and some entertainment activities.

So we had spaghetti, barbecue chicken and a chicken-pasta-brocolli dish for dinners, sandwiches for lunch and cereal, coffee cake or breakfast bars for breakfast.

We went out Friday night to the Crystal Palace for dinner and a fabulous show by Monty Byrom and The Buckaroos. On Saturday we took the train ride from Fillmore to Santa Paula and had lunch at Mupu's in Santa Paula. Yesterday, my brother and I played golf.

And we spent a lot of time talking, watching some football games and other tv programs.
It was a very nice visit — but nothing over the top. We then dropped everyone off this morning for plane rides home — the ex-husband (who has become a really good friend of mine) going all the way to Thailand where he now lives.

Do you do more or less for your family?

Posted by Steve E. Swenson