Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. While the history can be debated, I do admire the purpose. I think it's great that as a country, we've set aside a day to think about all the good, to give thanks for all that we have, to remember. I hope that you all had a chance to spend the day with family and friends, and to talk with others important in your lives.

We had a small Thanksgiving this year. Kelly's been with us for many years, Todd used to come down, and Kati lived nearby. We'd have other friends join on occasion too. They've all moved now. Last year we had a group from Greg's office, which was fun. This year, Kelly and Bree came back to town, and we had a wonderful time. As much as I miss having a houseful of people--although I did call my aunt's and the phone was passed around, so I had a little of that--I think it was actually a good thing for me to have it quiet this year. It's been such a busy year that not fussing for this holiday was probably really healthy for me.

Before I get too far ahead, though, I know some of you want to know what I did cook, especially since I say it was a quiet year. Really, this was no fuss stuff. The menu: assorted cheeses and crackers to start; Kelly brought the salad, and I did a pasta with a tomato, onion, spinach, and bacon sauce for the first course; dinner was the turkey, smashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, braised butternut squash with maple sauce, wild rice salad (from the cafe at work), apple cranberry dressing (from the cafe at work), gravy (yes, I failed on the gravy again), and bread; and for dessert, maple pecan pie (also from the cafe at work, since I don't like nuts), pumpkin bread, and fudge. See, I left the fancy cooking to the museum this year.

Kelly and Bree stayed over, and we had a girl's morning the next day. Then they went to visit some other friends, and we met up again at the zoo for ZooLights (next blog). But, we took a good long walk that morning, to try to take some of the edge off Bree's boundless energy.


Bree's a big fan of leaf piles, so we had a good time together running through them. I'm not certain how I caught her stopped here, but the next photo, in action, is much more typical.



Somehow, she held still long enough for Kelly to take some pictures of Bree and Aunt Amy. We're doing various animal sounds here, and I can't recall which one this is. Probably a tiger, by the looks on our faces.