Our Thanksgiving holidays began on Sunday, November 18th as we traveled to Bville. The journey was a good one without any incident. TYL for traveling protection. As always we arrive tired and worn out but glad to see family. Garrett was already there. He drove down from Charlotte, NC on the 16th after a week of certification classes for his job.
Mom and I did our usual on Monday (grocery shopping) for us & Thanksgiving day. She and I would provide a "fluffy" salad (Mom calls it by this name.), sweet potato casserole, green beans, ham, and an apple cream cheese cake with caramel pecan frosting.
Mother plays bridge with her friends every Tuesday afternoon beginning around 2 pm. They have played for a number of years and have the best time together. During a past visit Garrett became interested in the game and was a quick study. Whenever he is in Bville, mom will relinquish her spot at the table for Garrett to enjoy a game of bridge with his "lady friends".
I enjoy walking around the property and taking pictures. Dad and I would walk & talk about a lot of topics. He would point to places as we would walk and tell me what was going on or what he had done around the house or pond.
He and I would look for the largest acorns on the ground and wonder what to do with them. This year I drew an owl and used the acorns as his eyes.
Glenn & mom spent some time together as they burned some old papers. I am so thankful that my mom and hubby get along so well. Mom remembers when it would take Glenn a day or two to settle into our "family routine". Now he just needs a good night sleep from the traveling, and he is ready.
I really intended to take more pictures of our Thanksgiving Day but somehow I got sidetracked. Imagine that! We had three tables set up for seating. There were 19 of us Goodwin Family with 3 family guests. Dad's sister, Aunt Willie, and mom's neice/hubby, Freddy & Sara Musselwhite joined us for the day.
I did, however, think to take this shot below. He was such a happy man who loved his family and loved to joke around and hope that you would notice. He loved having his picture taken.
The apple cream cheese cake was a recipe that I found on the internet and sent to my sister. She said that this was what I could bring to the table. Now this recipe is a little bit more involved than I usually get in my cooking/baking but I was willing to try it. Preparation was a little under an hour. (I now know my shortcuts.) The cake stuck to the pan a little causing a minor appearance as a "dump cake". Not too happy but my mother-in-law was whispering in my head..."Don't throw it away. It will be good." The cake was delicious!!!
Now again, I missed a wonderful opportunity to capture "Family Memories". On Friday after Thanksgiving while most everyone was Black Friday shopping, our family meet at mom's for a day of house washing. Some were spraying, scrubbing, and pressure washing the house, and some were raking and hauling away leaves. It was a long day but very productive. Mom was so happy with us and the way the house looked when we were done. We all finished cleaning up our tools and left knowing that tomorrow morning would bring aches and pains for us. We reminded mom that her children were not "spring chickens".
After showers and a game of spades, we settled down for bed. Glenn and I were watching a little tv when the phone rang. Now at 10:22 pm with the phone ringing, anyone would wonder who was calling at this time. We did.
As I was just opening our bedroom door to check with mom on the phone call, she met me at the door to say that my sister said that she needed help with a fire behind her house. I ran back into the room, Glenn was already up getting ready, and mom was getting to Garrett (who was still up talking on the phone to Hannah).
Not knowing what to expect the three of us ran out of the house shouting "Get the brooms! I got the rakes!". We ran to my sister's house where she and hubs were battling a low, ground fire. We were filling & hauling buckets of water until the fire was pretty much out. Thankfully, the fire was never out-of-control, a near full-moon to light our way, and no blowing wind to fuel the fire.
After getting back to the house and showering, our bodies were still racing with adrenaline. It took a little while to settle down for sleep.
Saturday was a day for total relaxing. Mother and I rode to Rockingham, NC to go to a favorite little store of mine...Ollie's. It is such a neat store with lots and lots of items. My favorite area houses the books at very, very reasonable prices.
Thanksgiving just like any other holiday was a favorite of my dad's. He loved family time and having all of us together. In everything we did as a family this holiday season, he was there "whispering" his love to us.
