Turkey Day and a Van

Well, turkey day has come and gone, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to our friend Anthony's mother's house for Thanksgiving day. It was a wonderful time, and we really enjoyed it.

The food was incredible, especially the collards and the pound cake. Anthony also smoked a good turkey, my first smoked turkey, in fact. We all ate til we were stuffed and then took a goodly amount home, to boot! There were about 30 or so people there, with at least half being kids. Cole and Logan had a great time playing with all of Anthony's nieces, nephews and cousins. Cole was particularly enamored with Ms. Watkins macaroni and cheese! We took more of that home than anything else.

I also have to say that Anthony's nieces, nephews and cousins were some of the best behaved children I have ever met. There was one boy, Zack, who was about 5 or 6. He went out of his way to share toys with Cole and made sure that Cole always had an appropriately timed turn when they were sharing the same toy. I don't know that I've ever seen that particular fairness out of a child that young. He was also very affectionate, giving Cole many hugs!

I'd just like to say thank you to Ms. Watkins and all of her family and neighbors that allowed us to spend such a wonderful Thanksgiving with them. It was truly a treat!

In other big news the great van hunt is over! We bought a Honda Odyssey which is a wonderful van. It's the type of van that we wanted and we got a great deal on it. The only feature that it lacked was a DVD system in it, so we had an after-market one installed. It drives like a car, is roomy and holds everything we can put in it, seats 8 (with a seat in the middle of the middle row that you can pull out and store elsewhere) and was big enough that we could carry our Christmas tree home in it!

We traded in the Camry, so as to not have 2 car payments, which we thought was the wisest course of action. We had no desire to be car poor! So, pray that the Malibu holds out for another few years (or even another decade).

I have to say that the DVD system was well worth it. We got to use it on the trip to Ms. Watkins, which was about a 30 to 45 minute drive to Portsmouth. The boys both get a pair of headphones to wear and they were quiet as mouses. We can play the sound through the car stereo (via a built-in FM transmitter in the DVD player) if we wish, but with both boys doing so well with the headphones, and with it allowing Dalynn and I to talk while the boys are watching quietly, I don't know that we'll play it over the stereo much.

We're also, as I alluded to, set up for Christmas. It was particularly important to us to do it as early as possible this year because we never got to do it last year, what with being in the hospital the whole month of December. So, we did it the weekend after Thanksgiving. We got the tree on Friday and were finished decorating by the end of the weekend.

The only down side to things recently is that we've all been a little sick, though Cole isn't running fevers so we're hospital safe. All we really need right now is for Cole's cough to clear up and we'll all be much better.

If I don't get a chance to say it before Christmas, Merry Christmas to you all!