Thanksgiving Weekend

Now that my kids are away at college, I really look forward to holidays.  It's about the only way I get 'em both home at the same time.  So, as you can probably guess, I was eagerly counting down the days until Thanksgiving. 

But finally the long-awaited week arrived. Cody came home Tuesday night, and Denise rolled in between rainstorms late Wednesday.

Picking the last of the apples

With the kids here, we kept our activities close to home.  Thanksgiving day, Roger put them to work picking the last of the apples from our tree.

Roger going for the really high ones

We have a Granny Smith apple tree in our backyard.  This season was a banner year for apples, and we had a bumper crop.  We've had our tree for several years now, and it's grown rather tall.  And of course the best apples were the ones on the highest branches, out of our ladder's reach.

Time to make some pies!

Roger picked all the apples he could get to with his ladder.  Then he resorted to shaking the tree to get the others down.  When that didn't work, he and the kids began throwing the bad apples up into the tree, trying to knock the high apples down.  It was funny to watch - every once and awhile a throw would connect, and several apples came raining down.  I should've captured it on video!

Nice looking apples

Cody decided he'd make some apple pies.  The rest got cut up and frozen for later.

Thanksgiving table

I, of course, was busy on Thanksgiving day too.  First, I got up early and ran in a Turkey Trot with my friend Cami.  It was a 4-mile race, down a huge hill and then back up it again.  Cami joked that we burned enough calories running up that hill, we should be able to eat our turkey and pie guilt-free.

Dinner is served!

Then I came home and cooked up a turkey dinner for my family.  It wasn't too hard, though.  Turkey is pretty easy to cook - just put it in the oven!  And Roger helped quite a bit.

I'm thankful for my kids

The smell of roasting turkey soon permeated the house.  By the time the food was ready, everyone was really hungry!  It was great to have everyone together around the table again.

Cleanup crew

After dinner, I had lots of help with the cleanup.  My kids are good about pitching in (and so is Roger!)

Family photo - outtake one

Every year, I try to get a family photo for our Christmas card.  With my kids in school, it's hard to get all of us together for pictures.  Since everyone happened to be home Thanksgiving weekend, I suggested a quick family photography session.  Well, my kids aren't the most willing subjects.  They really hate posing for pictures.  But before everyone took off on Sunday, I gathered (bribed) the troops and posed us on the couch.  At the last minute, I decided to include Bear in the photo.  I grabbed my dog and placed him in my lap.  As you can see by my first take, Bear wasn't too thrilled with this!

Outtake two

I tempted Bear with dog treats and we tried again.  This time, just as the shutter clicked, Bear decided to lick his nose.  Aaugh!!

Third time's the charm!

Take three - Bear calmed down, but wasn't looking at the camera.  I though "oh great, another dud!"  But just before the camera flashed, Bear perked his ears and looked up.  Success!  I finally got my Christmas card shot.  And hopefully it wasn't too painful for my family.

The weekend passed by way too quickly, and before I knew it, the kids were both packing up to head back to their respective colleges.  But it was great to have everyone together again.  Thanksgiving reminds me to appreciate the important things in life - my husband and kids.  I'm so thankful for such a great family.

:)