Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

Rachel rolled into town Tuesday night after classes, ahead of what was looking to be some nasty weather for Wednesday that never materialized. She and her roommates along with some friends had their own Thanksgiving dinner at their place before saying goodbye for the long weekend. She was excited to be home because many of her friends were also going to be in town and it would be the first time they'd be back together since leaving for college. Plus, she was going to be able to see Amy, her 4-year-old sister. Amy thinks the world of Rachel and it must seem like ages to a little kid that age to be apart for even a couple months.

"Rachel...look at me when I'm talking to you!" Hmm...Rachel is pretty sure she knows where she got that from. Too funny.

I've been hearing for years about Keith's deep-fried turkey and finally got a chance to experience it this Thanksgiving.  I was told it's not greasy and I had no reason to doubt it but still, I had to try it for myself.  It's very good. Besides not being greasy, it's cooked in a fraction of the time it would've taken in an oven.

Tracee and Keith did their usual great job of hosting. Thanks, guys.

We spent some time before and after dinner Thursday putting up Christmas decorations. It was nice to have Rachel home for that as it's become a fun tradition that we all do together and I wasn't ready to let go of that after she left for college. Have I ever mentioned that we're a bit nuts for nutcrackers? Tammy started a collection for Rachel years ago and she adds at least a couple to it each year. I manage the Dept 56 village scene. Maybe it goes back to me always wanting to have a big toy train set as a kid and knowing this is the closest I'll get to that dream.

We had our own Thanksgiving celebration the following day with just the three of us. Tammy baked the turkey in a brine solution after a friend raved about her results doing this. We too were quite pleased with how it turned out and no, it wasn't salty at all.

Usually (I say "usually" because we missed 2009) each year we do a family photo for our Christmas cards with one of us coming up with a theme for the pic rather than just a plain ordinary photo. More recently we did our Wii characters for 2008 and our last pre-Charlie year had all of us in our glasses for 2007. This year it's a "snuggie" year. I think maybe snuggies are a bit 2009 but it's the best we've got and once we committed to the idea, Tammy went through the effort to make all but Rachel's on her own.

They're toasty!

Tammy and I ventured out to Mall of America Black Friday night. I love the mall, especially at Christmas. I'm strange that way. On the way back home we detoured to check out the lighted tree west of Cedar Ave just north of the river. It's covered in an awesome display of lights. There were a few other cars pulled over in front of the house doing what we were, getting a better look.

I've created a Facebook page for the tree. Feel free to 'like' it. Glowing Tree in Bloomington

And here's a little bit of video I took.

I started putting out feed once again on the side of our house for the birds and squirrels. They're back but not in the numbers we had last year due to the deforestation I had done last spring.

I'm off work for a couple weeks while I've got some meds coursing through me. I hope to indulge myself in a bunch of stained glass work during that time.

Be well. I hope to be.

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