And Sometimes Silliness Ensues…..

This year Thanksgiving with my family was the best. We drove down to my cousin Claudia's farm in southern Indiana. She and her husband, Rob, raised their family there….along with cows, chickens, dogs and cats. They even had a peacock and a parrot for awhile and who knows what else. There is a frog pond, lots of turtles and some REALLY big black snakes on the property. (Keep in mind that this is my cousin who grew up in a Chicago bungalow on the South Side - on a lot that was probably about 50' x 100'. And now she has a huge garden, gets fresh eggs from her hens and I've seen her chase a herd of huge black cattle out of her vegetable garden by flapping a dishtowel and yelling "Shooooo cow!")

Anyway - twenty of us gathered for this very traditional Thanksgiving complete with turkey, corn pudding, cranberry sauce, potatoes, stuffing, green beans four kinds of pies etc. etc. etc.  The serving table was "groaning" as were we after enjoying the feast. Four cousins from Colorado, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Claudia and Rob have hosted this gathering for years - and Dave and I are lucky when we are able to make the trip. As the family grows, the house seems to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to accommodate more and more of us - and Rob and Claudia welcome all of us with open arms. (This year we brought our own bedroom…we slept in our little RV!) The fun began as we gathered on Tuesday evening with more family members driving down on Wednesday.

But the silliness really started when Claudia's daughter, son-in-law, sister-in-law and who knows who else was involved (after several glasses of wine) decided to decorate the place with goggly eyeballs! Not sure where this idea came from….but they may have just started a whole new Thanksgiving family tradition. I came in from the RV, opened the refrigerator on Wednesday morning and found silliness staring back at me.

Honestly there were eyeballs everywhere! Staring at you from the bathroom mirror, stuck onto family photographs, sitting on bananas and tomatoes.

Our family group always enjoys this holiday together - but somehow, this year was even more special than usual. And I think the eyeballs had something to do with it.

:-)