Thanksgiving trip

For Thanksgiving, we stuck with our usual routine. Thursday with my mom's family, Friday free day, Saturday with my dad's family. Only, on Friday, instead of a loner-fishing trip for New Daddy, we opted for a whole-family daytrip. We took the kids to the site of our first outing together- Table Rock State Park. When New Daddy and I first came to Table Rock in early November 2001, we hiked a couple of miles up to the overlook and had lunch with a beautiful view. Sigh. Seven years and almost three kids later, it was amazing to me how vivid my memories were of our first trip there. Especially for someone who claims to have a bad memory!

It was later in the day when we got there, so we let the kids play at the playground for a little while. Then, a family showed up with a huge, overly friendly dog that scared even Precious, who loves animals, and of course, made Bubby scream. It was then that we decided to leave the playground and take them a little way up the trail to the waterfall. At supper tonight, Bubby told New Daddy a complete story of our trip to Table Rock, including the waterfall, the rocks they climbed on, the loud geese on the lake, and the swings at the playground.

Saturday was yet another memorable meal with my dad's family. Aunt Ma had already made two pies, but she made an extra pecan pie at the last minute. Only, this one had maple syrup, instead of the usual Southern standby of corn syrup. The difference was amazing! Definitely a recipe to hang onto, and request again. Another memorable item on the menu was the locallygrownfreerangeorganic turkey. It was extremely moist, and even the white meat was flavorful by itself, without having to be smothered in gravy to be palatable. Of course, loving dark meat as I do, I thought this bird's legs were out-of-this-world delicious. This 22-pounder was very impressive, and probably pretty healthy for us, too.

About thirty minutes before chow time, the potato gratin spilled over in the oven, which smoked up the kitchen and the dining room. The kitchen fan couldn't keep up with the smoke, so we ended up opening a couple of windows in the kitchen and even one in the dining room. Luckily, my pregnant self was very happy to sit in front of a frigid window while I ate. I was actually comfortable, instead of in my usual, overheated state.

That evening, we stopped by Bass Pro (of course) on our way home. Precious would have gotten to see Santa, but we had told her that we would stop by to see him on our way out. When we got there at 9:03, we realized that Santa had gone to bed early, being such an old man. I guess she'll have to wait a little longer. We did get to see the fish (where Precious asked how the boat got to the bottom of the tank), and we did buy Bubby some sunglasses that are less feminine than Precious' ones that he seemed so attached to for a while.

And now we're back home, back to our routine of staying up to all hours, and back to our warm fire on a crazy-cold day. We're back.

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