Friday Observance of A Thursday Occasion

After what should have been 4.75 hours of driving, we arrived home from Dallas in 8.25 hours!

It was clear last night, that a) alot of people live in Texas and b) most of them were driving home from a delightful Thanksgiving holiday on I-35.


It was the first year I've ever spent Thanksgiving Day eating Black Forest Ham sandwiches on a picnic at the lake. We decided to observe the holiday on Friday because Mimi (my Grandma) was arriving that Thursday afternoon from Kentucky. And we wanted to give Ian (my brother and one of the biggest Thanksgiving-dinner-lovers) an extra day to get over a stomach bug.

So Thursday afternoon we found ourselves at the lake with some Indian and Hispanic families that were not celebrating the holiday that day either.


We met Santiago for the first time on this trip,



Ava idolized her cousin Sofia, insisting that all wardrobe and hair-do's match accordingly. I liked to think of them as the "hair cousins". They both have long flowing locks.


Oliver was there too,

As were Dan and Mom,

Luke,


And Cristina, Ian, and Mimi,


I had a chance to practice my night-time, by-the-fire photoing skills. Most of them didn't turn out so well, but this one worked out okay.


Friday's dinner was a success. The preparation was all-inclusive. Each couple/individual had a couple of dishes assigned to them.

Mimi working on the stuffing,


Ian helped out by getting all the junk out of the inside of the turkey. He's a better man than me. I could never do it. I once broke a pair of tongs inside a raw chicken. I just can't handle that kind of thing.

I was impressed, here he is digging...digging...it's still a little frozen... digging..


and TA-DA!


Before dinner hit the table, we all went and got gussied up. Do you dress up for Thanksgiving? It's totally optional in our family. I even remember a photograph of Thanksgiving past where my brother and I are sitting at the "kids table" together, me in my fancy Sunday dress and he in his clown pajamas.

Dan and I were definitely more casual this year, but Mom helped Ava and Sofia with their make-up




and they were glamorous!



The spread was large:


turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, jello-salad, corn pudding, green bean casserole, rolls, deviled eggs, olives and pickles, cranberry sauce,


as well as apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies.


Nobody held back,



Especially, Oliver




And I think the only things that could have made it better were if the whole family was there and it was all calorie-free.