Happy Thanksgiving

The past several years, Michael and I spent the actual Thanksgiving Day with his family. But this year, we packed up Lucas and Elleigh and drove to Vermont. Vermont trips are always whirlwind trips because I try to do so much in the little time that I have. I don't get back home often enough it seems.

Lucas and Elleigh slept entwined with each other on both the ride over and back. This was the first time Lucas got to meet his Grandparents on the Doaner side, and his cousins: Brandi and Angus.

I took a tour of Grandma's house, and the work my brother and an electrician have done on getting the house in shape to be rented. My brother is hoping to be able to move in before Christmas with his family.

Brandi's birthday is in early December, so I usually bring up her birthday gifts around Thanksgiving time. This year, she got a new assortment of books and a little cash.

Angus was in high energy mode on Thursday, so it was hard to get him to sit still long enough to photograph his new missing front teeth.

We had turkey and all the fixings: potato, gravy, coleslaw, deviled eggs, stuffing, squash, and rolls. This year's forgotten item was the yams. There's always something that never makes the table in every house.

Brandi, Angus, Mom and I sat down with the felted ball kit I got on my Grand View Knitting Retreat weekend. We wrapped yarn and used roving to make fluffy balls, and then stuffed them inside old nylons and put them in the washer for one cycle. It was quick and fun, and now we have four felted Christmas ball ornaments. I think next time, I would use more traditional Christmas colors. The fancy ornament hangers came from Target.

Michael helped my Dad open their new computer up and get it hitched up to the printer. Mom and Dad were working on my old hand-me-down Gateway that must be 10 years old at the very least. They were getting to the point where they could run errands between mouse clicks because the computer was so slow. They are now running on Windows Vista and Dad can't believe how fast his fantasy football website loads up.

Mom and I had little pieces of mince meat pie and maple pecan pie before it was time to pack up the dogs and drive back to New Hampshire in the pouring rain.

Lucas and Elleigh shared a small can of Thanksgiving Dinner dog food made by Merrick when we got them back home. Mmmm!