FAMILY THANKSGIVING & GROCERIES

Today we (my side of the family, that is) had our annual Not-On-Thanksgiving-Day Thanksgiving dinner. Tnk hosted it at her house, which was really nice. As I suspected, I strongly felt Mom's presence throughout the afternoon, and I think Tnk did, too. She got choked up during the prayer. I completely understood.

My contribution to the dinner was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and dump cake - all homemade. And root beer - not homemade - for the kids. All four were big hits amongst the diners.

When we finished eating, my dad decided to clear up Tnk's backyard a bit. He grabbed some old wood we'd stashed outside and started a bonfire. Fortunately for Tnk, her house is in a subdivision with no deed restrictions. Weird, definitely; against the law, nope. The fire grew with more and more wood, and eventually we even tossed the old patio furniture into the flames. Thirty years has that furniture existed, but it was high time it was put out to pasture. Burning the pieces was a little sad for me, though, as I have fond memories of hanging out on that furniture during childhood summers when we'd take breaks from the pool. (Tnk had the pool filled in last year, as the maintenance had become overwhelming.) So farewell, old and decrepit patio furniture. You won't be forgotten.

Moving on...

After bonfire, we played Trivial Pursuit, 90's Edition, which I had picked up for $4.98 at Target earlier this year. It was different from your usual Trivial Pursuit game, but still pretty difficult. We even had a couple of "Ann-Margret" guesses tossed in for good measure, even though that was never the correct answer. (If anyone doesn't get the Ann-Margret joke, let me know.) I won the game, with a little help from Tnk and hubby. Okay, a LOT of help. Hey, I told you the game was hard!

We left Tnk's just after 5:30, which is really REALLY early for one of our family gatherings to end. But it's Sunday and the kids have school and hubby has work tomorrow, so it's good that we came on home. We even had time to fit in a little America's Funniest Videos, which is a Sunday night guilty pleasure in this house.

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Forgot to mention my trip to Kroger this morning. I purchased 55 items, including but not limited to: a frozen turkey, a bag of dog food, two dozen Eggsland's Best eggs, six cans of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, three cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls, four bags of Goldfish, five bags of pasta, two bags of Clementine oranges, and a bunch of other groceries. Shelf price was $93.02, but after my coupons, I paid only $34.38! MAN, I love the Grocery Game. :)