Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving Recapped

Thanksgiving Day was beautiful. A little warm, but at least the rain held off til Friday morning.


The 4 Flying Dutchmen arrived in the dark on Wednesday evening, they awoke to a bright morning and more space than they realized.

(The view from the door of the rooms they stayed in)


(checking out their surroundings)

Will and Pappie got started early with the fried turkey! Dutchy called it the "Magic Broom" as the bird was lowered into the hot oil.

When Will learned Wednesday evening that they were all computer geeks, he happily wore the shirt his math teacher sister, A, gave him last year for Christmas:



Will and those four visitors discussing binary and how to count in it was a hoot . . .only geeks! Gotta love mine (even though I completely zone out after my eye roll when counting and explaining begins)

As we were working away in the kitchen, we noticed out the window, our Dutch friends getting their supplies out of the cooler in the car. It was fun watching these guys discuss, with animation, their plan of attack for the dish they were about to prepare.



Here were two of them working away on the preparation for a . . . .


Dish of Sauerkraut, potatoes, cheese, white wine, bacon and sausage.


Then all the goodies were brought out, the serving tables laden with food.





And we all stuffed ourselves way too much!

See that piano in the background. I do not know the technical name for it, but it is a self playing piano. A will load the punched music sheets in it,turns it on and off it goes, much to the kids delight.

So what did they do after overloading on so much food? It wasn't walking. . . but Will and Ocho brought around the buggy for a ride around the farm - no crops, just woods and ponds and paths.





Then followed by skeet shooting. A couple of the guest tried it. I did ask about hunting in the Netherlands, since gun ownership is not allowed. There are hunting clubs that you can join, and with the proper registeration, own a gun for hunting. There is limited land for hunting so hunting is limited, but some game still needs to be controlled (sounded mainly like wild boars).

The negotiations made on Wednesday evening worked out ok. No beer or wine was brought out at Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving evening, the group huddled outside with their wine and drinks and I guess you could say the day was "toasted." A (sister in law) was disappointed that they stayed outside, but since the majority of the group are chain smokers, sipping wine and having to go back outside every few minutes might not have made for great game time.
By then, I believe, Traveler had started to relax and stopped trying to be so hard on the Dutchmen. She seemed to underestimate all of our ability to be accepting and inviting as well as the sense of humor her family does have. Sometimes, I think it is easy for young adults to believe differing values equates to judgement and coldness and closure. I think "not traveling the world" to them, means closeness of mind and inability to connect. I hope she is seeing otherwise now. We really enjoyed her company and they seemed to be comfortable quite quikly!
Friday came the rain. We needed it, but it did change a the pace of the day some. They guys did get in some target practice.

I loved looking out seeing most of them plugging their ears. (heare no evil!!)


Will got the mini-bike running and in no time The Man was flying along the lane, in the rain. Dutchy became quite alive too when heard it zipping by outside the door. I love that the rain did not deter the fellas.
Demolition D and Will still went to the deer stands in hopes of getting a buck . . .

Every time out, Demolition saw the same young buck - knuckle heads. The mature ones must have been smarter - they stayed out of the rain!


Our visitors headed back to Atlanta on Saturday and will be heading to warmer waters soon.

Cancun.

They will have definitely had an eventful holiday.

We arrived home late Saturday evening. Sunday morning as we headed out for church, I was amazed! Our neighborhood was peppered with these beautiful colors on the Bradford Pears.


The pictures do not give the color justice. Much more vibrant in person!

It is amazing how quickly the trees can turn. They are a little late, but with the grass already being brown and grayness of the rainy day, the color was shocking and uplifting.


So our holiday was full of color and flair with all the newness the holiday brought.
I hope yours was just as wonderful and fullfilling!




"So live that your memories will be part of your happiness"








7 comments:

Jan said...

Man, you guys packed in a whole lot of fun and great food. I want to come next year. wow.

Jane In The Jungle said...

Looks like a good time was had by all!! The Dutchmen did look properly entertained , good ol' Southern style!
Sound like you had fun too, thanks for sharing the pics!!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a busy Thanksgiving you had! It sounds like so much fun. Love the photos!

Kathy said...

Looks like you had a nice Thanksgiving. My oldest daughter used to live in Evans, Ga. We loved our visits there.
I just wanted to stop in and thank you for visiting my blog "Just a thought & other prespectives"

Come back and visit
Kathy Goldenbogen
mt. Clemens, Michigan

Randi said...

OH, you are so so brave. I'm not sure I could take that on and live to blog about it cheerfully!
Seriously, my hat is off to you!

Tara said...

Wow....beautiful place! just breathtaking! looks like an amazing holiday!!!

Hadriana's Treasures said...

Beautiful photos especially of the trees. I think I fall into the type which/who doesn't understand binary! Lovely food and glad the Travel(l)er relaxed a little... :)