weekend adventures

Thanksgiving was fun! We gathered (as usual) at my Aunt's house in the country. The little cousins ran around and played and had lots of fun. They always get together on the Wednesday before for a bit of fun in the country -- they roast hot dogs and make s'mores and try to sleep in tents. This year, the big girls succeeded. One of them even slept late-ish -- until 9:30 -- in the tent! The boys and the little girls ended up sleeping inside, after starting out in tents, too. After a lot of running around, the kids all ate first, close to noon. Once they had cleared out, the rest of the family was gathered up for dinner. We had a "kids" table in the kitchen, where the 20-40's adults sat, an "adults" table in the dining room, where the 60-95's sat, and a mixed table in the living room, with some from each age group. My Aunt had found place cards from a long time ago and mixed us all up -- somehow we usually end up sitting with our own little families, instead of mixing in with the other aunts and uncles and cousins. We ate three kinds of turkey (fried, smoked, oven roasted), sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, dressing, green bean casserole, asparagus casserole, corn, green salad, cranberry sauce (three kinds!), congealed salad, biscuits, sweet potato rolls....And for dessert, ginger puddings, chocolate tart, pumpkin pie, pumpkin crumble, pumpkin cheesecake, sugar cookies, and ice cream, with fresh whipped cream.

YUM.

Dinner was followed by the annual Thanksgiving walk, in which we all change into more comfortable clothes, put on walking shoes, and proceed to walk around in the country for at least 30 minutes. This way, we can justify round two (or three) on the desserts.

Then we played a game, supplied by the resident game supplier (one of my cousins), until it was time for supper. We ate thirds (or fourths) for supper.

Then it was time to head to the beach for the rest of the weekend. Unlike last year, I managed to keep my jeans buttoned the whole way. I think that means I did a better job of not eating everything in sight all day long.

And the beach was exceptional. It always is. Somehow it never, never, never disappoints. I truly believe that it is a magical place.

Sweet hubby and I seem to be making our own tradition of going to the beach after the family Thanksgiving festivities. We invited my parents along this time, but only my dad could come. He waited until Friday to come down, though.


And it was a busy weekend!

I made some new curtains for our bedroom and bathroom at home. I think I like them, but they are too long, for both rooms. And I need to iron them. They turned out a little bit more girly-frilly-fluffy than I anticipated. I think I will like them more once the room is painted. We're planning to paint over winter break from school -- a nice peachy color that will complement the duvet cover we already have, and look pretty with dark wood furniture, and give a beachy feel to the room. Since we love being at the beach so much, it would be nice to have something that feels light and airy in our bedroom.

And we went on an adventure to find carnivorous plants growing in the wild.
We had some help from a family that was already at the nature preserve -- we would never have found the venus fly traps without their help.
We didn't really know what to look for, and they are so much smaller and low to the ground than we were anticipating. We also wouldn't have found the purple pitcher plants without their help. The yellow pitcher plants were really the only ones that were easy to spot -- they grow so much taller than the other two. This was particularly interesting to me, as we are studying plants in 3rd grade, and carnivorous plants have some mighty nice adaptations going on.

We also took a long boat ride, the last for this year, as now the boat will be "winterized", and we worked some cross word puzzles together. Even sweet hubby is starting to get interested in the family-cross-word-puzzle-solving.

As usual, it was hard to leave for home.

We stopped by my grandma's house and packed up the 26 crystal goblets we had stumbled upon the last time we stopped by her empty house. Sweet hubby chose a turn table/radio combination that we'll have to find a place to store for a while. We opened all of the cabinets, drawers, and closets one last time to make sure that we hadn't overlooked anything else when we moved her out.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend.

And so far, I'm 11/12 months complete on my New Year's Resolution -- So far, I've been to the beach at least once (sometimes more!) a month this year. Best resolution ever.