Thanksgiving....

We have so very much to be thankful for, and I sometimes have to remind myself of that when I get a little bogged down with things. For example, I had SO hoped we would be in the farm house this year, and we haven't quite made that goal... but, we have accomplished so many other things on the farm and I just need to continue to be patient and work hard. And just think that NEXT Thanksgiving we will be officially on the farm. Now that being said...

My Mom's birthday actually fell on Thanksgiving this year. I feel badly because I overlooked that and with all the other goodies we had to eat, I didn't even have a little cake for her (I guess my sister Becky did... good job!!) But either way, I am so blessed that I still "have" my Mom and I hope the day was just wonderful for her!!!!


Then we had Tara with us this year, she flew up from Mississippi to spend the week with us. Tara is one of Sadie's dear friends in the world, they have "been together" since third grade. Tara is now in college and quite the young lady!!!! I felt bad that we "took" her away from her Mom and Dad, but she hadn't been back in the great state for nearly three years and was anxious to see Sadie and Abbie and "be home" once again, so we grabbed her. (Her folks live in New Mexico now..) It was just such fun having her here with us, and the house was filled with activity on a daily basis.

And of course, it was baby Abbie's first Thanksgiving, and everyone loved fussing over her....

The camp was filled to the brim with family and friends.

And one of the "residents" of Turkey Manor made their great debut. "He" was very good, and one of the middle sized birds... which THAT in itself was quite the story!!!

On Monday, I went down cellar to the chest freezer that we had put the birds in. There are 8 turkeys in that freezer... I went to pull this bird out and found we had a little "problem".. see all the birds were fresh when Ed put them in there, and the bags that they were in were just a little damp.. well, when they froze....

they all froze together, and what we had was a big turkey Lump!!!! It took Sadie, Tara and I quite a few moments of banging them with a rubber mallet and prying them apart with a screw driver to bust them up and get this bird out!!! (how many people does it take to get one turkey out of the freezer??) For a few moments, I wondered if we would even have turkey for Thanksgiving, but we finally managed.... we'll have to remember that next year when we freeze birds.....

"MY" babies.... course you know that Chester made a big hit with the family.....

Naomi just loved him, they played together for a long time~~~















this is Adam, my parent's toy fox terrier...he's one of the senior doggies of the family... such a good boy and doing well at almost 14






We did have one other minor issue.. goodness what's a holiday if you don't have something go a muck... and "a muck" it was. Ed ran down cellar only to find that the basement bathroom was completely back up.. and had he not seen it, it wouldn't have been long before the upstairs bath and kitchen would have backed up as well. Bottom line was, the septic pump had quit and nothing was moving!!! He managed with the help of Nate and Josh to pump out the holding tank enough so that we could at least use the toilet (but dishes had to be done in the small camp next door) and we muddle thru the evening until the next day when we had the honey wagon come out. Turns out that a piece of dish towel had gotten into the pump and just plugged it big time, so it was "an easy fix".. but why do those types of things always happen during a holiday?????


Anywho...aside from that.. the day was very wonderful. Kas and Nate came up later after having been with Nate's family and they stayed over night in the little camp... My sister Becky was entertaining the "other side" of her family, so she wasn't able to join us, but all in all, we had the whole family together!!! I cherish these days..

"black Friday" morning, Nate stayed to help Ed did a bit of sheet rocking in the house. Kas and I babysat little Abbie so that Tara and Sadie could do some girl things together, and the rain poured down. We did have a breakfast out together, but for the most part, it was a nice quiet day and a chance to pick up and re organize after the holiday. Kas and I did make a run to one new store in town, she took Abbie and I took Chester... both got equal attention!!!!

So, as another Thanksgiving comes and goes, and I reflect on many things my overall view is just the same... we are very blessed and extremely grateful....