Give Thanks and Eat!

I'm amazed at how fast Thanksgiving came and went.  Did you get the same feeling?

I hardly got any pictures this year...not even one of the bird before my dad carved it up.  I guess that's good though - I was thinking about family and having fun and not about blogging.  Find the good in every situation, right?

Here's a picture of our full house - every name on our guest list is present.

I could describe in glowing detail who everyone is, what they do for a living (like Uncle Bill, who is the groundskeeper for the San Diego Chargers field!), and everything we did together...

But you would not enjoy it.  We just have too many in jokes, and if I tried to re-tell everything, it would lose its charm.  So...

Here's another picture.  The cousins!

Stuff we did..........

Saw Tangled.  (My favorite animated movie second only to Up! It was adorable and Rapunzel was so cute.  Even though I sensed a few bad underlying themes, you gotta see it.)

I learned how to play poker.  Not for keeps, of course.  :)   

Went on an excursion.  1 1/2 miles down the highway in the snow to get fried chicken...then we walked back.  It was fun.  And while we were there...

Returned a cell phone to its owner.  My brother found it, so we took it into the restaurant with us and scrolled through all the pictures (grand total of three) and finally, Uncle Bill called the home number and had this conversation.  

"Hello?"

"Who's this?"

"The person who found your phone."

"You found my phone?!"

"If it's your phone, I found it."

He said his name was Dwayne, so we left it at the counter for him to pick up.  Every person that walked into that restaurant was temporarily branded as Dwayne, until Dwayne himself finally walked it.  We didn't give ourselves away, and on the way home all our jokes were centered on Dwayne....oh, and hitchhiking.  With Dwayne.  Poor Dwayne.

Played games.  Battleship, Settlers of Catan, Taboo...and Sequence.  The Original Sequence Team has been going for maybe five years, and the teams consist of Blue: Cousin Frank and my brother John, Green: Cousin Larissa and me, and this year, since Larissa got married, we had to add Jimmy to the mix, so Team Red: Jimmy and Brothers Eli / Will.  

Red did very well, but I think it was partly because Green would much rather have Red win than Blue, and Blue would much rather have Red win than Green.  But Green did not do very well this year.  At least we won the last game.  Last Thanksgiving, Blue didn't win once though, so it was okay.  Here's our yearly team picture.

Ate a lot.  Of course! Sadly, the pecan pie and the peach pie didn't turn out, but the apple and pumpkin were good.  The 24 pound turkey was very good too.  And Thanksgiving Lunch - now that was a wonder all in itself.  Olives, crackers, fancy cheeses, salami, veggies and dip, and dark chocolate make a great feast, don't you think?

  

Naturally, I'm sad today since everyone is gone.  :( But I think a romp in the snow will do the trick.  I'm off!

Love from a very thankful,

Ellyn