Thanksgiving 2009

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend, including two family get-togethers, some gingerbread cookie decorating, and an unplanned trip to the after-hours pediatric clinic! But I'll get to that in a minute ...The Friday before Thanksgiving, Maggie's school held its annual Thanksgiving Feast. The K4's recited a poem and then sang the blessing. They wore Native American vests and headdresses, and all in all it was probably a pretty politically incorrect celebration, but the kids were really cute.

Maggie's class recites the poem "Indian Child." (Like I said, politically incorrect ...)

Closeup of our super star.

Maggie and her friends Abby, Madeline, and Zoe.

Peyton is Maggie's best friend from her class.

Maggie and Daddy

Maggie and Mrs. Ginny, the school principal. We love her!

After playing a computer game that allowed her to design and print her own gingerbread man, Maggie wanted to decorate gingerbread cookies. Last year I found already-rolled-out dough in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, but this year none was to be found! God bless Publix, though, because in their deli department, I found a box of four huge, already-baked gingerbread cookies, and a kit for decorating them. (Did I mention they were already baked?!? This saved us both a lot of frustration since I hate rolling and cutting cookies, and Maggie hates waiting for them to bake.)

She wanted the cookie to match the one she'd decorated online and had the paper cutout next to the real thing.

How does it look?

On Thanksgiving Day, we celebrated first with Bobby's mom's side of the family. Maggie loved playing with her cousins Ethan and Dakota.

Maggie and Ethan

Dakota, Ethan, and Maggie

Next, we headed to our second gathering of the day, this time with Bobby's dad's side of the family. (For those of you wondering where my family was in all this, they were hiking in North Carolina. My mom's idea of a perfect Thanksgiving meal is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich eaten atop a mountain, and my dad and brother are usually pretty happy to oblige her.) We had a good time visiting with relatives we don't see as often, and Maggie had a great time exploring their yard.

The girl is a monkey, I tell you!

One of the more interesting parts of this visit was a walk to a nearby cemetery. An old cemetery. One that's just sort of ... there. There's no church associated with it, nor is there any office to speak of. Just a house near the entrance, whose owner tries to tend the graves as much as possible. Although the teenagers in our midst thought it was weird and creepy, even they couldn't resist tagging along when someone suggested we walk up and take a look. My brother-in-law and I both saw this as an opportunity to get some unique pictures, and we weren't disappointed.

It's hard to tell in these first two pictures, but the ground was really sunken in at many of the graves. Really sunken. Creepily sunken.

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Based on the date of birth, this was one of the oldest graves in the cemetery.

I'd love to know how "Hot Sauce" Washington got his nickname.

I'm sure that the Africa-shaped stain on the top right corner of this grave marker isn't blood, but it was still eerie.

Check out the spelling of 'died.'

Cool tree shadows

We had a great Thanksgiving ... now bring on the Christmas fun!!