Thanksgiving Weekend

What an absolutely lovely time we had! Penny and Howard arrived around 2:30 p.m. on Thursday and Lou and Karleen got here at 6:00 p.m., just in time for supper. They all came loaded down with food of all description and Lou and Karleen brought me a lovely wreath covered in apples and berries, which we used as a centerpiece with a candle in the middle (Pen bought a candle for it). I’ll take it home for my front door. Everyone got along so well and we had many laughs, deep conversations, and three championship-level “Hand and Foot” games. We played teams and each team won a game. Penny & Karleen scored the overall highest, then me and Howard, followed up by Bern and Lou. They’re all hooked now and are planning to continue playing when they get home. We had a great time.

Bern and Howard put the boat back in the water (he took it out last week for fear of freezing temperatures) and went fishing a few times - and Penny finally begged enough so they let her go along, if she promised to be quiet. We all KNOW fish don’t like noise, right? I remember my Dad telling us kids that when he took us fishing. Now, however, I realize he probably just wanted some peace. Oh well.

The weather couldn’t have been better. Everyone had planned to leave Monday, but was easily persuaded to stay another day. This morning, the rain and winds came with a vengeance! But, we were able to go for walks in the woods most days and the sun was warm and the skies were blue all weekend. We walked over to Herman and Judy’s and had a tour of their log home - it’s really coming along. They now have electricity, which makes a lot of things more convenient.

Howard brought a beautiful eight-pound prime rib roast which Pen cooked for supper Friday night - it was so good! We were all sure she was going to ruin it when she started talking about smothering it in soya sauce, garlic powder and pepper. But, as it turned out, it was delicious and cooked to perfection! She and Howard started a little scrapbook of their adventures to date - it was really cute. Karleen worked on her craft, too. She is beading moccasins for the people participating in an upcoming “naming” ceremony. That’s where native people receive their native names. The design for the ones she brought to work on is a bear paw. She finished one and started another. It’s really nice!! But, a lot of work!!! I told her I’m healthy and I wouldn’t attempt to do it.

On Saturday, we celebrated Karleen’s birthday. And, since Penny’s birthday was just the week before, we celebrated her’s, too. Pen & Howard had brought an Italian cream cake, so we used that as a birthday cake. Pen and I got Karleen a money tree and a little butterfly pen. Karleen got Pen some Body Shop body butter. Everybody was pleased.

Lou did his karate and tai chi on the front lawn most days and Karleen and Penny did a drum ritual thanking “Spirit” for the earth and all its blessings one morning. On Sunday, we had our Thanksgiving turkey dinner and everybody gave thanks for that! It was so good!!! Herman and Judy joined us, as usual, and brought three pies, whipped cream - and, a sugar and creamer set decorated with APPLES! I couldn’t believe it, since I have the same design in a teapot at home!!!! We were so stuffed, we could hardly move.

James called on Monday to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving and then said, “So I have this turkey here…how long do I cook it, at what temperature, and I don’t have a lid…it weighs 3.5 pounds. After he got the details and hung up, I was telling Bern about the call and how nice it was James was going to get a turkey dinner after all, he said, are you sure it was 3 ½ pounds? That’s chicken size. I bet its 3 ½ kilograms. Of course, I should have known that. Anyway, I called James back and told him to look at cooking the thing for another couple of hours at least. He said he was wondering because they were thinking they had to take the turkey out of the oven in another hour and it hadn’t even started to look anywhere near cooked! I didn’t hear back from him, so assume everything turned out alright.

Well, everyone left this morning and it’s very quiet! The sun has started to shine, but it’s still really windy and cold. We’re going into town in a little while to take the garbage to the dump, get a few groceries and go to the library to check email and update my blog. I’m planning to leave the cottage for home on Thursday morning. I’ll stop in Oakville, take James to lunch and then head home to Welland. Bern will stay here until the weekend and then he’ll meet up with the moose-hunting boys. He’s planning to get home the following weekend. So, the next update will be from home sweet home - hurray! I’m ready!!!