two thanksgivings

Kentucky stone wall - no mortar, just stone, and a couple hundred years old

Today is so dark, it would be easy to fall prey to the winter - yes, winter - doldrums after a week of activity, so what better time to count the goodness of life than to relate the tales of two Thanksgivings? Last weekend Ani and I traveled to converge with Wisconsin family at the home of Kentucky family! We couldn't pass up the chance to see my grampa and my mom and my great aunt and two sets of aunts and uncles when they were only 3 1/2 hours away.  It was so worth it.

Big Papa Marzo, thinking hard about dominoes

This is a mellow crowd. With the exception of one walk along the neighboring ridge, we hung out inside and played Mexican Train dominoes and Skip-bo, read, knit, and of course ATE. There was also much loving-on of Rio, a big beautiful lurcher, but no photos, as cameras scare him.

Sookie (yes, as in Stackhouse)

Monica and Ani harvesting baby greens for the salad

 This was a first meeting for Ani with some of my family, and everyone enjoyed each other immensely, I gotta say.  (I'm not sure what was happening in the photo below, but clearly they are in agreement about something!)  I just stewed in the midst of family, fed inside and out.

More dominoes, with the aunties (Nice handknit socks there, Mom)

Our lovely hosts, Monica and David, and my cousin Jake

Four generations of the Bliss line.

 The week in-between turned cold, with snow and ice and then crystal blue skies.

Thanksgiving day we got some family time in - no play rehearsal for Dan and Eliza - cooking and preparing to receive our Richmond, VA family.  Do you have people in your life who don't give up on you even when correspondence gaps? Who don't mind if you stay in your pj's for most of the day, through coffee and breakfast and cards and dishes and talking?  These are those people.  In the five years since we've lived in Richmond, we've visited back and forth with them I think eight times, and this is the fourth Thanksgiving we've shared together.  I have no photos of our meal, of course, but it ended in watching a kid dance party while eating on two pies. 

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving weekend without hiking, so out we went into the cold.

We are so grateful to you, dear friends, for making your way to us with such joy and love! For huge hugs and card game after card game and snowball fights and for having such generous and kind spirits, all of you.  

Happy Thanksgiving!