Thanksgiving 2012

We arrived at the Miskiewicz's house in Raleigh, NC, on Wednesday, November 21. 

Here we are!

  Kim had cooked up a storm in preparation for the weekend.  Not only were we, Jeremy (Erin's boyfriend), Kim's mom and brother there all weekend, she was having 29 people for Thanksgiving dinner itself.  

Kim's mom is 84 and going strong.  She helped Kim a lot with the pre-cooking.

We had lasagna to eat on Wednesday night.

Jeremy proposed to Erin at the skating rink on Wednesday evening.  We were all supposed to wait in the lobby and yell "Surprise!".  We arrived before they did, and when we realized it, there was a mad rush to the cars to hide!  So typical of a Meahl/Miskiewicz get-together.

Finally waiting.

The happy couple plans to get married in September 2013.  They will both graduate from college this May.

 Thanksgiving Day arrived and it was a full and happy one!

Carys' main goal was to play with Abby.

The young girl and the old lady. 

Abby has been a part of many of our Thanksgivings, including one where she ate half the pumpkin pie while we were outside looking through Dave's telescope.

 The dining room table was usually filled with some sort of board game that would have to be cleared off in order to eat.

Let the games begin!

Kim and I have been doing Thanksgiving together since 1997, minus one year when they went to Kim's mom's house in Kentucky.  That's 15 of the last 16 years.  Wow!  Things will begin to change now as our children are getting married, joining the Air Force, etc.

Ok!  Here's what we're going to do!

On top of everything that day, Landon overflowed the toilet upstairs and before he could blink, water was running down the walls into the shower of the downstairs bathroom and into the bedroom downstairs.  It set off the smoke alarms, too!  He will never live it down!

Uncle Jim to the rescue!

Discussing the bathroom situation with the experts, Greg & Jim.

Carys had a great time playing with Julia and Bethany, the neighbor girls.  She seems to be into giving the peace sign in all her pictures now!

Carys and Bethany heading out to play.

 Finally Thanksgiving dinner was ready.  We have all our usuals that must be present and then many extras are added in depending on the number of people eating that day.

Dave is happy to finally be eating.

Carys sharing the love!

Kim, Chase and I hit Walmart on Thursday evening.  It was chaotic, but I got a few things at really incredible prices that will make Christmas so nice!  On Friday, the fun continued.

Video games in the Bonus Room (love this picture of Matt and Carys)!

More board games

Greg and Dave did some shooting in the back yard and at a range.

Kim and I did a little more shopping.  Then the four of us went out to eat at a sushi place, Erin and Jeremy went to Outback with Jeremy's parents, and everyone else had take-out pizza at home.  We had a big bonfire in the backyard to wrap up the evening.

 We planned to leave at 2pm on Saturday, so there was time for some fun prior to that.
 

See what I mean about the peace sign!

 The most hilarious pictures came from the people playing Kinect!!

Chase and Landon boxing?

Matt and Landon also boxing, though it looks more like dancing.

Greg gets in an the fun, though I have no idea what he is doing!

Greg and Matt having a heart-to-heart.

 We always take group pictures before leaving.  Here are a few!

We left at 2pm.  Unfortunately, we only got about 30 minutes down the road before the van died.  The fuel pump had to be replaced.  We managed to get it towed to a Firestone before they closed.  They ordered the parts, so it could be fixed on Sunday.  We had already checked out of our hotel (Greg, Carys & I stayed in a hotel this time because of Kim's mom being at her house.), so we spent the night at the Miskiewicz's.  That meant more time for fun.

No visit is complete without a game of Mafia.

Gerren is NOT the mafia!

Good thing we had an extra night to play!

We spent the day Sunday waiting to hear about the van and doing the other things we hadn't managed to fit in. 

Kim cut Chase's bangs for her.

Don't they look good?

Organizing the Tupperware, my idea of fun!

The wishbone wasn't quite dry enough to snap.

We enjoyed a cup of tea on the porch.

Two beautiful young ladies, Chase and Erin.

At 4:00pm the van was done, and we managed to leave by 5:00pm. 

We had a great time!

We took Landon straight to Orlando, arriving by 12:30pm.  We were home by 2:00am.  Greg had to get up at 6:30 for work, but he got to bed by 3:00am.  The next evening, we took Landon's car to him.  It was a long week going on a sleep deficit like that, but we survived.

I had to include these pictures.  I can always count on Kim to snap some great pictures of my kids' beautiful faces.

Chase - 14

Landon - 19

Carys - 6

Gerren - 17

 

 We'll be back in NC in September for Erin's wedding. We can't wait!