Back!

Hi all-

Sorry I didn't update while I was on vacation in the states but I was too busy eating, sitting by the fire and talking to family and friends. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We had a gathering of 63 people - it's so special to get so many people together, even if only for a few hours one day out of the year. Because I'm not able to go home for Christmas, my family was kind enough to let us cram Christmas activities into the few days after Thanksgiving - chopping down the Christmas tree, decorating it, making gum drop cookies, and decorating sugar cookies. While the visit was too brief, it was a wonderful time and I'm so happy we all got to be together! Here are some pictures I took while I was at home, but they haven't all been loaded up yet. I'll add the rest later.




Not the typical Thanksgiving food but at our gatherings, it's tradition. A Mexican layer dip.




Another classic at Thanksgiving - goldfish.



And another popular appetizer - crab claws. Oysters (or clams?? - both gross to me) are also popular. Can you tell we're from the seaside?



I guess something a little more normal - veggies and dip.



Thanksgiving food. A similar shade but not bad, considering enough is made to feed 63 people (and lots of leftovers).



A photo of all of us.



Family photo plus Veronica



Not a site you see very much - Turkish tea and bacon being cooked on the same stove.



Going for a walk in the woods, looking for a tree.



Dad about to chop the tree down. It gets a lot bigger when you put it in the house. A lot bigger. We ended up finding the tree just a few yards from the house, but it was still nice to go for a walk in the woods. As always, our cat Fuzzy came with us, even though he's going on 15 years old.



Decorating the tree



Yes, this is a gorilla on my porch. It's a long story but a long long time ago my parents won this family portrait photo thing, and the guys called them up to take care of it. Those that know us know that we aren't exactly the family portrait type of family, so we were thinking of ways to make it less painful for us. Heath came up with the brilliant idea of having his girlfriend dress up in a gorilla suit and to have her in the background reading a paper (and later fishing). We don't have the actual portraits yet but here's a picture of "her".