Thanksgiving Dinner

We spent most of the morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before getting ready for our visit to Brian and Amy's for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Josie made a beautiful arrangement for the table to take to dinner:

Normally, on occasions like this, we take photos of everybody sitting around the table either before or after eating. Yesterday, we decided to get some other shots of everybody visiting in the different areas of the house. The girls were all in the kitchen visiting while the guys were outside on the patio visiting and watching the football game on TV. So, starting with the girls in the kitchen, here are Lois and Cheryl:

Taylor and Amy visiting while preparing for dinner:

and Debby sitting at the table outside for a visit with the guys:

I didn't realize until I started preparing the shots for today's entry that Josie wasn't in any of the shots that were taken with our cameras. She is in the shots that were taken by the other visitors, but I don't have access to those, so I apologize to Josie.

As mentioned, the guys were outside on the patio visiting:

while Brian was up and down and in and out of the house getting the turkeys ready:

There were two turkeys - one on the grill being roasted on a spit (above), and a second one being smoked in a smoker that they have outside on their patio:

I have never seen a smoker as complete or as nice as the one they used yesterday. I have only had experience smoking salmon in Washington with an old fashion, compact aluminum smoker that didn't have any of the nice features that Brian's has.

Just before going inside to go through the line to stack our plates with great food, we saw this balloon floating by outside:

It was very close to passing right over the house, so we were able to get that great shot.

Both turkeys turned out excellent, and the smoked turkey was a nice change for Thanksgiving dinner.

Everything was perfect, and the entire afternoon and evening was a great time visiting and celebrating Thanksgiving with family. The kids were all off doing their own fun things and we didn't see much of them as they were busy riding their bikes before dinner and playing video games in another part of the house following the meal. It was close to 8 PM by the time we left and we thank everybody for the great meal and the wonderful visit.

Next up is Christmas, and the fun begins today with Black Friday shopping. We don't expect to get caught up in any of that frenzy, but we know that the shopping centers and malls will be overflowing with people anxious to spend their money on the great deals that are out there. Good luck to them, as we plan to stay close to home and avoid the crowds...