To paraphrase Shakespeare, Goodnight sweet football. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

And those flights of angels are the New England Patriots.

Last year on Super Bowl Sunday, Broncos Nation was agog with excitement because its beloved team was playing in Super Bowl 50, and they subsequently beat the Carolina Panthers in a great game. Well, a great game if you’re a Broncos fan.

But yesterday, John Elway was doing the same thing as I, eating queso in front of the television and trying to figure out why companies would pay so much money for such ridiculous commercials. Seriously, Spam? Von Miller was out feeding his chickens and gathering their eggs and trying to convince his hens that roosters were, in fact, “dope,” as he had proudly stated last year shortly before he was named MVP of the Super Bowl. The Bronco’s new head coach – young Mr. Vance Joseph – was reading the text messages he was getting from Elway stating things along the line of Hey V, I’m making hotel reservations for next February in Minneapolis; hope you’re figuring out how to make sure they don’t go to waste. And Coach Joseph was telling his wife, “Honey, let’s wait a year or so before we put in a pool.”

Well, Broncos or not, we celebrated the Super Bowl in joyous fashion in the same way that our family celebrates most things: with lots of food and libations. I chose to root for the Falcons, though I have only been in Atlanta a total of one time in my life, and that was for a period of four hours or so, just long enough to visit the Coca Cola Museum and then head off to visit Bill’s brother in Birmingham, Alabama.

My choice of being an Atlanta-Fan-For-A-Day was not really so much FOR Atlanta, but more of an ABP (anybody but the Patriots). I feel a touch guilty for saying that, because I’m sure to the extent that our Vermont family are football fans at all, they are Patriots fans. And there is, after all, this adorable shot of our grandson Micah…..

But the sad truth is though I understand why Micah and Joseph are fans, I’m not. Still, at the end of the day, the better team won. Enough said.

But back to what really counts, which is the food.  When it seemed our Super Bowl party was going to consist of only Bill, Bec, and me, Bec was going to bring pre-made hamburgers from Whole Foods to munch during the game. To my delight, the party expanded to include my brother and two of his three daughters and their loved ones. So I made my own burgers, Bec made her delicious potato salad, Dave made jalapeno poppers, and we all drank beer and Bloodys.

Bec made us Bloody Marys that were yummy.

Thanks to Dave for the poppers.

And for cooking the burgers.

Bill and Blake enjoying game festivities. Blake, like Joseph and Micah, is a Patriots fan, but also like our grandsons, we love him anyway.

Jenna and Lexi are taking a break from fun to eat their burgers.

Jenna and Lexi love their Aunt Jessie.

Farewell Sweet Football, until we meet again in August.

This post linked to Grand Social.