It was a wonderful day. There was a chance we would have a change of plans because Aunt June's sister passed away a little over a week ago and they all went to Minnesota for her funeral. Aunt June emailed us all to say she would still be hosting. I didn't know what to expect when we got there, but they were celebrating Jeanette's life instead of mourning her. It was a blessed release so everyone was relieved that she was no longer suffering.
We all showed up a few minutes before 2pm. My cousins Barry and Todd were there with their wives Karen and Judy. Eric and I, my sister, her hubby, their two sons Mike and Chris and our mom all came. Of course, we were hosted by Uncle Jim and Aunt June. Mike was there without Katie which I knew about ahead of time. Katie's family never made a big deal over Thanksgiving so she got used to going off to be with friends. Being married didn't change that. Last year they were on their honeymoon. This year she was off someplace. Apparently she understands now that for our family Thanksgiving is a big deal and will be joining us in the future.
We had our same traditional dinner as always. Appetizers vary except for spinach dip. We have to have spinach dip! This year the others were olives and cornbread squares that were bland unless you put salsa on them.
Dinner itself: Turkey with stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, lingenberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cornbread muffins, green beans with almonds, green salad with feta cheese and blueberries. Those last two were my contribution.
Dessert consisted of Aunt June's cheesecake (I went off my diet for a sliver of that!), Karen's key lime cheesecake (OK, I cheated and had a tiny sliver of that, too) and Mom brought no-sugar-added pumpkin, apple and apricot pies. I had a tiny slice of each one. Time off diets on holidays is legal.
After dinner we visited and petted a visiting white fluffy cat in the back yard until dusk approached then a bunch of us climbed Twin Peaks to watch the lights come on around the bay. I took a bunch of pictures and a few movies. The movies catch the lights much better than still pictures do. Todd managed to appear in all of the movies. lol
The first appearance was an accident when I was doing a pan view as I started down the hill. Should have done that at the top but it was getting crowded up there! Todd came up behind me and realized what I was doing as I got to him so he put on a noble face and posed in profile.
The second was a pan across the view from the side of the road on the lower part of the hill. Todd decided to run in circles around me making airplane noises. A car went by as I was turning toward the hill.
The third was out a bit farther so I could get more of the city without bushes in the way. This time Todd went out to the edge of the hill in front of me and stood there. Barry took his picture as soon as I narrated about Todd standing there. The flash illuminated him. Then I kept panning and there was Barry! He took a few pictures of himself to illuminate his face. Then another car came by so this time I kept panning and took it going by.
We were reminiscing about playing on the hill as children and getting very deep about how important relationships are as we made the turn off the road to go into the back yard. Suddenly the bushes started shaking violently on one side and someone leapt out of the bushes on the other with hands up in claws saying ROWRRRRR! I screamed. They laughed. It was Mike and Chris waiting to "help us" find our way down the dark path. I could still see it. They just wanted to scare us! Brats. lol
When we got back inside, we hooked my camera up to the TV and everyone saw the pictures and the movies. I still had the zoo and Squeakers pictures in the camera and when I tried to back up to the start of our hike I kept going back to the Gotcha! picture of Squeakers. It got a laugh every time. People who haven't been able to climb the hill got to see what we all love so much that we push ourselves up there very year. Todd got lots of laughs from his appearances in my movies. I hope I can figure out how to post them so you can laugh at Todd, too!
Then we had dessert and played a game Mike brought called Quelf. What a weird game! You had to do things depending upon which color space you landed on. There were rules, stunts, showbiz, quiz questions and group quizzes. Sometimes the things involved everyone, sometimes just one person. Judy got a Rule that said she had to sit on her hands when it wasn't her turn. It got painful so my sister wrote "her hands" on a piece of paper and Judy sat on that. My nephew Chris got one that said whenever he made eye contact with someone he had to say "I've got you now!" He enjoyed that one. lol Mike got one that said anyone who had anything to drink during the game had to toast "To ancient times and ancient music" or something like that. Everyone else with a drink had to join the toast or move back two spaces. Nobody had anything to drink so two of them went and got something just to have fun with it. I had to use my nose as a trumpet and hum the national anthem. If anyone saluted or put their hand over their heart, I would have been able to move forward a few spaces. Nobody did. I was laughing too hard to finish after they guessed. Mike had to put his finger in his nose and yodel until he rolled 2 three times. We had to name things in a topic a few times. Muscles in the human body, Presidents, things you throw away then dig through the trash to retrieve and places you've been naked are a few of them. Whoever couldn't come up with something or repeated something had to move backward two spaces.
I was about to win when Aunt June's niece Nancy came in with her husband and son. We broke to hug them all. Nancy just lost her mother yet she was also celebrating her mother's freedom from suffering. She was fine. Then we finished the game and I actually won! I don't generally win games. It feels a little strange. lol
We'd been making noises about leaving after the game but Nancy and her family extended things another hour. It was so good to see them! Her son Daine and my Eric got into a deep discussion about geek things. Todd showed me his neopet. Barry has had one for a few years since Karen's nephew got into them. He wanted to make sure it was a good thing and is encouraging their nephew to play the stock market there. Neopets has a stock market?
We finally left at about 11pm. I'm still tired!
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