Grandpa and me took Rick and Kathy up on their offer to spend Thanksgiving with them and their family up at their cabin in Pine.
So! at 9 a.m . we packed the "Traditional Trifle" the "Traditional Candied sweet Potato's" and the more recently introduced "Pumpkin Trifle" into the car and away we went!
The ride up was beautiful! A sunny, warm day -and the highway going up wasn't crowded at all.
We arrived to a bustling household with 13 of us in attendance and in short time - to wonderful aroma's of Turkey and greenbean casserole wafting around us.
IT was mid 60's and sunny , so- perfect for anyone who wanted to be outside on the deck . With 4 very little boys who love to play with cars, marbles, playdough - - and various other goodies - it was nice for them to be able to have nice enough weather to overflow out there.
I (.G.G Joni) enjoyed a walk with Jonathan to gather Pinecones "For his collection" - -I had visions of a collection for some wonderful art piece - or possibly for his "crafty" mommy to make a pretty wreath or something - so I was encouraging him to only put "the pretty, uncrushed" ones in our collection bag. In retrospect I remember that he looked at me a little askance when I picked up one then discarded it (crushed) - but it wasn't too long into our walk that I learned that the effort of "collection" was all to go back to the high up deck of the cabin and pitch the pinecones back down the hill with a whack of a plastic Tennis racket! :) No wonder Jonathan could care less if the pinecones were "crushed" or not :) Anyway - we had fun together and talked and laughed a lot and it was nice to be invited for a special "walk" with him.
I won't go on and on about how fun it was just to watch all the interaction - - between 4 wonderful little boys and also their whole family and just to "visit" in general. There was much joint effort in paring potato's, getting the turkey going and checking on it - and such fun seeing our married grandchildren helping their mom and dad with all the prep. :)
Sarah had a wonderful and memorable "craft" for us all to participate in -- "even the MEN! and even Michael" (end of quote) - We were each given a Letter in the words "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" - to decorate on pieces of Felt and various other decor (beads, straw, or whatever we could come upwith - Rick used barbecue chips - Eric and I used Pinecones) and when we were all done the individual pieces of felt were glue gunned onto a ribbon to make a Banner - and to be hung for all future HAPPY Thanksgivings.!
We sat down at 4 to "THE TURKEY" ! and all the trimmings. Much joking about Kathy's choice of candles . (shaped like ears of corn and really very clever - but you know MEN!)
Noah (1yr.5 mo) gets the prize for "enjoying and having the most fun with " - his food!
After dinner - SOME of us went on a walk as it was getting dark, to get room in our tummy's for DESSERT! FOUR of them!) On the walk - when Jonathan was asked what was his favorite - he explained - that one with the " red stuff " (raspberry jelly) and the "cream" (whipped cream)- SO! showed his Jamieson/Judge/Scottish/English roots with his choice of TRIFLE!
It was soon evident that all the younguns seem to be liking it. Eric's favorite however is the Pumpkin Trifle -- -and Cassie seems to prefer the pumpkin pie - - and then there are a few of us - like me - who love them ALL! (I sampled 3 of the 4 available desserts:) Don't forget! It's a declared "NO GUILT" day!
DAd and me left at near 8 and arrived home at 10 - declaring it "A nice day" !
The day after has dawned sunny and cooler than it has been - more towards our normal Temps - it's supposed to be in the low 70's today - -so perhaps our winter is finally upon us.
It's perfect - and I love it!
For any of you who want to see some pictures of our Thanksgiving - I will be getting a SNapfish album together soon - and will send it - I haven't figured out yet how to incorporate it into this "Blog" place :)
Grandma Joni (aka Mom , G.G. or GiGi :) or whatever!
