The Day after! (Thanksgiving)

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!