Thanksgiving and Such

So Thanksgiving was last week, and that meant the last time I would see most of my family for a year or so. For the first time in awhile everyone was able to make it. The Smiths came (my brother Brian's in-laws) and Jill's (my sister-in-law, married to my brother Jack) sister and her husband. So it was just family. Everyone did their different duties. My parents made sure the two birds got cooked. Jeff and I peeled the potatoes, then Brian mashed the potatoes. Jack made the gravy because after all he is the gravy master. Jill's sister brought deviled eggs. The Smiths brought this cranberry sauce that is absolutely amazing. Dorothy made apple, pumpkin, pecan pies (the pecan was by far the best).

After dinner, everyone gathered in the front hall on the steps going upstairs for a picture. Now ordinarily taking a timed photo should be fairly easy, right? Get the camera in the right place and set the timer. Yeah well it's not that easy when my dad operates it. First he gets the tripod set up. Everyone at this time gathers together on the stairs. Meanwhile he sets the camera so everyone is in the picture. Now as everyone was ready, Dad goes to turn the timer on. He pushed a button and everyone stared at the camera in anticipation. No blinking orange light, no flash. Dad gets up and states that he doesn't know where the timer is. While he is figuring it out, he took a few candid photos unintentionally. Finally after a few minutes he figured it out. It was fairly amusing, seeing as we manage to have at least one classy funny moment per year (either at Thanksgiving or Christmas). Here is the end result after a few minutes of tinkering:


Pictured: (from bottom row going up, left to right) Mom, Dad, Jill Smith (Dorothy's Mother), RADM Jerry Smith(Dorothy's Father), Dorothy, Brian, Gracie, Jill, Jack, Jenny, Amy, Jeff (Amy's fiancé), Jill's brother-in-law, Jill's sister, Chris (me).

All in all I am thankful I got the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with my whole family. It is going to be awhile till I get to see them all together again. It was especially nice since I will not be able to spend Christmas at home this year (the first time since 2002) due to my training schedule.

Today, or rather yesterday, I went up to New Jersey to see Grandma. It took me about 3 1/2 hours to get to Brick, NJ where her nursing home is located I had been there once before a few years back when I went to visit her with Amy while she was in rehab. Once I got to her room, I caught her up on the big news in my life (Utah, yeah scary I know) and we looked through photo albums for over an hour. There were a lot of photos I hadn't seen before, most of them ones of my siblings and cousins. The amazing part was how well Grandma remember the names pretty well. I say that because she will be 100 in February. What I liked best was seeing pictures of my grandfather and grandmother together from years past. Hopefully I will be able to visit her the next time I come back East.

Only a couple more days before I start the trek out West with my mom. It should be a fun adventure; something new and exciting. Tomorrow night (Friday) there's a party and I will be sure to post a couple of pictures (if I don't forget my camera). I am going to miss Virginia.

**On a side note, fonts ended up getting all screwy somehow...argh**