This year Courtney decided to jet off to Greece for a week and Brian was cooking his own dinner, so Bruce and I jumped in the car and drove to KC for Thanksgiving. I'll do just about anything to get out of cooking and cleaning, including driving for 8 hours across Kansas.
Bruce had never seen Janet's new house, so he got to take a quick look around before all the kids arrived. We took advantage of Janet's outdoor Christmas decorations to take a photo. Since she's the first house on the street, she put up a large train along her fence that all the neighbors can see as they turn into the neighborhood. Her neighborhood association finally decided to turn the ground between her house and the street into a little park, so I bought her a bocce ball set for her birthday next week. That's one of those games that seems to be popular with senior communities. The only trouble is that the balls are so heavy, we're going to have to do some weight-lifting this winter to get in shape to play.
Things were pretty quiet until the Taylors showed up, but then it got really lively with 4 kids and 2 dogs. I was going to try to work off my last treadmill hike on Janet's elliptical, but Violet and Lincoln beat me to it. Janet has a 3-car garage, but she turned one of the spaces into a she-shed. She's got a workout area set up, but she's also got a big recliner sitting in front of a big-screen TV. I'm guessing the recliner gets more of her attention.
Goldie is really growing and is very curious. You have to really watch her, because she moves fast.
Hazel was her usual self. She's not taking a nap here... she hates cameras. I think I have more pictures of the back of her head than the front. But she finally warmed up later in the day and we did some coloring together. Luckily no one brought out a camera to send her back into hiding.
I got to play some board games with Violet and Lincoln. It probably won't be too much longer before Goldie can join us. We tried playing Chutes & Ladders, but that game would drive a saint crazy with the number of times you have to restart after sliding down a chute. I need to teach them how to play Splendor.
I wanted to take a group photo of all the girls. There seem to be a lot in this family, though we are missing Courtney and Karen. And then we took a photo of the boys - a much smaller group (we're only missing Brian), but very handsome. It was a really nice way to spend the holiday, but I'm glad Thanksgiving only comes once a year. I was exhausted... even without all the cooking and cleaning.
