A GRATEFUL HOLIDAY

We went out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday to visit my mother-in-law and my husband's sisters and families.  I published 2 posts while I was gone so now I have 3 to catch up on. 

The first thing I am thankful for is my mother-in-law and the fact that she is one of the best cooks I have known in my life.  She has been a profound influence on me in my life and has helped me want to be a better cook.  This is saying a lot for someone who really is not that fond of cooking.  I know I fall very, very short of ever being able to cook as well as her, but I have made an even stronger effort because of her influence.  Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving spread.  You can't see the turkey from here because this is only Counter #1.  There is also Counter#2 and Stove #1.  :0)

The next thing I am thankful for is the safe drive we had both to my mother-in-law's and back home.  Coming home the wind was blowing so incredibly hard it was unbelievable!  And let me just tell you right now, that with the drought Texas has been experiencing, it is just a dust bowl.  So we drove through sandstorm after sandstorm as we drove down the highways and passed unplowed fields.  Some places were almost zero visibility.  That was really scary.  We stopped right at the edge of Twist's town to get some gas and when I went into the store to use the bathroom, I could hardly walk upright the wind was so strong.  Sorry we didn't stop Twist, it was only 9:30 am and we were afraid conditions would just worsen as the day went on, so we just kept going. 

Last, I am thankful for my husband's family  I love all 3 of my sisters-in-law and my 3 brothers-in-law very much.  We have a lot of fun when we go there, and especially at Thanksgiving.  For almost at least 30 years, if not more, my sisters-in-law and I would do a craft after Thanksgiving dinner, while the guys and my mom-in-law watched the games.  We have made some pretty cool stuff and some pretty crazy stuff, but we have also had so much fun doing it!  Now that we all have grandkids, and their kids and grandkids are visiting, this has died out.  I think it mostly died out when we went to Ireland.  But it was fun while it lasted.  Now we have a new activity that is just as fun:  This year we hit all the antique stores in town! There are 2 boutiques we go to first and then we go to 4 antique stores.  What a surprise we found when we saw that they had turned the old grocery store on main street into another antique store.  It is a really big one too and full of lots of cool stuff!  This year my husband and one brother-in-law also went to the antique stores. They were looking for antique tools, but didn't find any they wanted.  This was after they had gone to the sale at the tractor store first.  Another of our favorite things to do when we are there is to play "Spinner".  It is such a fun game, and is really an easy-going game, so you can laugh and talk and have fun while you're playing.  I tried to play it here with some friends.  I don't know if they just needed to play it some more, or if they were just too serious on winning the game.  Regardless, it didn't come across as much fun to them.  :0+