Still thankful

It has been over a week since we got home from our quick Thanksgiving trip. We decided to drive up to see my side of the family for Thanksgiving, mostly because we (actually Mr. Fix-it) needed to do some things around the folk's house. Stuff like trimming trees, fixing faucets, stuff that I'm not really good at.

The drive up was surprisingly easy. No long lines at any of the bathrooms and gas was cheaper than back home. We saw my dad and then he kicked us out (we suspect he wanted to watch some football, lol).

Thanksgiving was at my cousin S's. This was the first time I've seen her home, which is huge! And a good thing too since she had 30 guests. Mostly family, but some friends too. Just her family/siblings/kids/parent/in-laws totaled 19 people. There was so much food since everyone brought multiple dishes (we brought multiple snacks since we were traveling): spinach artichoke dip, chips, pigs in blanket, lumpia, cheese and salami tray, nuts, deviled eggs, krab salad in baked filo cups, baked brie/jam in baked filo cups, green salad, crudites, turkey, ham, prime rib, sticky rice (nu mai fan), mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, asparagus, rolls, green bean casserole, two kinds of cranberry relish, pumpkin pie, cake, sweet potato pie, berry pie, ice cream, cookies, Chex mix, and gosh, I can't remember what else. Needless to say, after two trips to the buffet I was stuffed, but still found room for dessert.

It was a wonderful gathering. The food was delish, but what really shone through was the love my cousins' family. Their kids (my first cousins once removed?) are so close and they've really missed each other. A couple of them have gotten married so being all together is really rare. My uncle was mellower than usual. And, I met a scrapbooker! One of my cousin's friends is a scrabooker (why is it I keep meeting scrapbookers who live hundreds of miles away??!).

We spent the day after Thanksgiving doing stuff at folk's. Mr. Fix-it did all the heavy tree trimming and mom and I used the pruners and hauled everything out front. He cleaned the gutters in the front and I cleaned them in the back. There was still more to do, but it was getting too cold.

The drive home was even faster than the drive up. We both woke up early so decided to leave early. But we waited until it was light, which was a good plan since it was foggy. Although traffic was heavier as we got closer to home, we still made good time and only got gouged on gas prices once.

All-in-all, it was an awesome Thanksgiving, one of the best.